We are disappointed in the Supreme Court’s persistent attempts to delay the lawful end of this harsh policy that has no lawful or scientific basis to continue.
The reality is that Title 42 was deployed as an inhumane effort by the Trump administration to strip migrants of their legal right to seek asylum and instead subject them to danger. Title 42 is a public health authority, the use of which was never intended to be a measure to secure the border, as some propagate. There is no scientific or public health rationale to continue Title 42 because migrants are no more likely than any other travelers to spread COVID-19, making it an ineffective strategy for stopping the pandemic or enhancing border security.
Republican leaders continue to politicize this issue, ignoring the fact that there are lives of mothers, fathers, and children at stake. At every turn, Republicans in Congress have blocked bipartisan, meaningful immigration reforms and billions in additional funding to improve border management, processing, and oversight. They have spread false, racist, xenophobic narratives about vulnerable migrants seeking asylum while decrying the humanitarian effects of what they themselves have wrought in refusing to work across party lines to fix our decades-out-of-date immigration system.
Congress has just taken an important first step—despite opposition from the majority of congressional Republicans—to enhance border security and strengthen our humanitarian response at the border and around the world by passing the fiscal year 2023 omnibus. The omnibus will fund multiple national security and border management functions and initiatives, including resources to combat the flow of lethal narcotics and strengthen the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s capacity to assist communities in need so that the administration can address the situation at the border.
There is no question that we must fight to end the use of Title 42, and we cannot rest until Congress comes together and works across party lines to enact fair, humane, meaningful immigration reform.