When the pandemic began taking its toll on the U.S. in the Spring of 2020, President Trump made the wise choice to restrict the flow of asylum-seeking immigrants at our southern border under a policy referred to as Title 42. Title 42 allows the government to keep people from migrating into the U.S. to help stop the spread of contagious disease within our borders. Those who crossed our border illegally could be deported immediately. It was the right move. Since March of 2020, U.S. immigration authorities have expelled more than 1.7 million people under Title 42.
Earlier this week, the White House announced that it would begin to roll back Title 42 restrictions at our southern border. President Biden is bowing to pressure from the progressive wing of his party to stop enforcing our borders. He is playing a political game and the American people are going to lose.
Mr. President, if you believe that it’s time to roll back Title 42 restrictions, do you believe the pandemic is over? If so, it’s time to bring ALL federal workers back into the office.It’s time to get rid of the mask mandates on airplanes. The pandemic can’t be raging in the rest of America, but over at the border. That just doesn’t make sense.
We clearly have a crisis at the border, and the Title 42 restrictions we had in place were helping to quell the flow of people coming in. It is not logical to remove COVID restrictions on people illegally crossing our border while keeping COVID restrictions in place for American citizens.
I cosponsored a Congressional Review Act to halt the expiration of Title 42 until the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration authorities could show the process they have in place for efficiently handling an unexpected surge of migrants. We’ve seen all too clearly that immigration authorities are completely overwhelmed and unable to handle the number of people attempting to cross our borders. There is no accountability. While that legislation failed, I will continue to hold the administration’s feet to the fire to keep our southern border secure. The people of Wyoming deserve answers.