Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke criticized the Biden administration’s plan to end Title 42 without a strategy for border states to deal with the expected increase of unlawful migrant arrivals at the border.
Title 42 is a public health order implemented by the Trump administration that allows Border Patrol to turn away any migrant without ever allowing them to enter the country or claim asylum. The Department of Homeland Security has said that after Title 42 ends, up to 18,000 additional border-crossing attempts will occur in the U.S. each day, up from about 7,000.
“It does not make sense to end this until there is a real plan and the capacity in place to handle those and address those that come over,” O’Rourke told the Texas Tribune. “I have yet to hear a plan from the Biden administration to address the dynamic we will have on the border once Title 42 ends.”
In March, the Biden administration announced that it would let Title 42 expire on May 23. The measure had previously grabbed national attention when the DHS used it to turn away 7,000 migrants from Haiti that had gathered at a port of entry in Del Rio, Texas, to seek asylum last September.
O’Rourke previously agreed with ending Title 42 because it causes repeat border-crossing attempts. When someone is turned away at the border under Title 42, they face no legal consequence, and no paper trail is created to document that they already tried to enter the country once, leaving the option open for them to try again.
The candidate for Texas governor said a better system is needed to process asylum claims.
“What it has done is produced a situation where the same person is crossing multiple times a week, and under Title 42, that Border Patrol agent simply turns that person back around, and then that person tries to cross the next day,” O’Rourke said. “They’re not arrested, not detained, there are no consequences for someone who is not following our laws when they try to come into this country, and it means that this country is not following its laws when it comes to those who are trying to make a legitimate claim for asylum.”
O’Rourke stated that he has met with border officials who have expressed concern that the Biden administration has not provided any guidance on how to deal with the increased number of people who could arrive at the border.
“Everyone is legitimately concerned about the lack of a plan. We should hold the federal government accountable for doing its job, and they’re not doing that,” said O’Rourke.