WASHINGTON — The White House press office declared a mid-morning “lid” on Tuesday because the Supreme Court weighs the fate of the Title 42 pandemic migration policy — while border communities and major US cities brace for a possible humanitarian crisis.
A White House pool report sent at 10:35 a.m. relayed that President Biden’s staff declared the lid, which suggests that no public events are planned or prone to occur.
It’s unusual to call a presidential lid so early within the day, since major domestic or international news could prompt schedule changes.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts paused plans Monday to lift Title 42 in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The Biden administration had until 5 p.m. Tuesday to answer an appeal from a bunch of 19 Republican-led states that sought to maintain the policy in place.
Although Biden will remain out of public view Tuesday, reporters could have fleeting opportunities to ask Vice President Kamala Harris — the administration’s migration czar — in regards to the border crisis Tuesday afternoon when she hosts swearing-in ceremonies for 4 unrelated positions.
The Title 42 policy, established in 2020 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, allowed US border officials to quickly expel people suspected of illegally crossing the border because of the COVID-19 pandemic — somewhat than undergo time-consuming legal processes to deport them or evaluate their asylum claims.
The Biden administration sought to finish Title 42 earlier this 12 months but a federal judge in Louisiana halted the initial bid in May. The authority may ultimately be lifted in response to a DC federal judge’s ruling within the separate ACLU lawsuit, a case through which the Biden Justice Department filed a nominal appeal before asking the matter to be held over in anticipation of a alternative policy.
In practice, the Biden administration already has relaxed use of Title 42 — immediately allowing unaccompanied minors to stay within the US and steadily allowing in additional family units and single adults.
The Associated Press estimates that fifty,000 persons are waiting on the Mexican side of the southern border with plans to illegally cross this week if Title 42 ends.
Under the Trump administration, federal prosecutors led by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions attempted a “zero tolerance” policy of prosecuting all adults who illegally crossed the border, but that initiative flopped amid an outcry over the separation of migrant parents from their children.
Since Biden took office last 12 months, the border has experienced record amounts of illegal border crossings by people from the world over.
Critics blame the border rush on Biden’s more welcoming rhetoric, including his call for laws to legalize most current illegal immigrants living within the US. Some migrants have cited his words when questioned by journalists about their trek.
Biden halted construction of former President Donald Trump’s US-Mexico border wall — though officials have quietly moved to shut some gaps — and ended Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that required migrants to await asylum decisions south of the border.
The White House in September attempted to clarify the growing border crisis by saying that migrants were “fleeing communism” — regardless that most weren’t — before adopting a policy to rapidly expel Venezuelan migrants fleeing their country’s authoritarian socialist government while continuing to confess other nationalities.
Before the Supreme Court stepped in on Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre teased looming policy announcements set for Tuesday that may serve to go off a border rush — potentially by taking further steps toward restoring Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policies.
Nearly 2.4 million people were detained after crossing illegally into the US in fiscal 12 months 2022, which ended Sept. 30 — a rise from 1.7 million in fiscal 12 months 2021, fewer than 500,000 in fiscal 12 months 2020 and nearly 1 million in fiscal 12 months 2019. Those figures don’t include migrants who evaded arrest.
Local officials say they fear what would occur if Title 42 ends after already managing massive migrant influxes.
Latest York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who styles himself the “Biden of Brooklyn,” said Sunday, “We’ve already received greater than 31,000 asylum seekers into our city, and … we now have been told … we must always expect an influx of busses coming from the border and that greater than 1,000 additional asylum seekers will arrive in Latest York City every week.”
Adams added, “With the expiration of Title 42 just days away, we’d like the federal government — each within the administration and in Congress — to share their plans to maneuver asylum seekers to other cities, to permit asylum seekers to work, and to send aid to the cities which have borne the brunt of this crisis.”
El Paso’s Democratic Mayor Oscar Leeser declared a state of emergency Saturday as migrants already released by immigration officials slept on the streets — with hundreds more expected once Title 42 lifts.
“I actually consider that today our asylum-seekers should not secure as we now have a whole lot and a whole lot on the streets, and that’s not the best way we wish to treat people,” Leeser said, in response to the Texas Tribune.
“Our border community is facing a unprecedented humanitarian crisis,” said Texas Democratic state Sen. César Blanco, who represents El Paso.