Beto O’Rourke, Texas Democrat, says Biden needs to be better prepared for the end of Title 42

Democrat Beto O’Rourke distanced himself from President Joe Biden’s border policies on Tuesday when he said the administration needs to be better prepared before lifting pandemic-era expulsion policy Title 42.

There are concerns among state, local and federal officials that letting the rule expire on May 23 as planned will lead to a mass migrant event that would overwhelm border communities and the already-strained Department of Homeland Security. 

Title 42 was enacted under Donald Trump and allows border agents to turn asylum-seekers away regardless of their status in the name of mitigating COVID-19’s spread. 

O’Rourke, a failed presidential candidate who’s now running to unseat Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott, was asked about the policy at a press conference.

He said there are ‘very legitimate concerns’ about lifting it, and that ‘even those who are trying to claim asylum or come to this country to work or join family, there has to be a far more orderly process for them to do that than what we’re seeing right now.’

O’Rourke took an opportunity to attack Abbott for his ‘stunt’ sending migrants from the Texas border to Washington, DC. 

‘The answer is in coming up  with solutions — bringing in the federal government to do their job, partnering with local communities by showing up and listening to them to hear the solutions they come up with as well,’ the candidate said. 

He stepped up the criticism of the White House when admitting to ‘problems’ with the Biden administration on immigration policy, while answering a Spanish-speaking reporter’s question. 

O’Rourke said in Spanish that he did not believe the president had a plan to solve the migrant crisis that’s straining local border communities — and that if he did, Biden wasn’t sharing it with him yet. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on April 1 that it was lifting Title 42 because it was ‘no longer necessary to protect the public health.’

Progressive groups and human rights advocates have been pushing Biden to lift the rule, which was started under Donald Trump, since he took office. They’ve pressed the president about his 2020 campaign promise to repeal his predecessor’s ‘inhumane’ border policies. 

But several moderate Democrats including O’Rourke have broken from the White House to criticize the Biden administration’s decision. 

‘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 on Tuesday. 

‘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.’

On Capitol Hill, senators from both sides of the aisle are attempting to cobble out legislation that would pump the breaks on Biden’s decision to roll it back next month, before they believe the Department of Homeland Security would be ready to handle an expected surge in migrants at the southern border. 

Democrats’ refusal to consider an amendment keeping Biden from lifting Title 42 sunk an entire $10 billion COVID pandemic aid package after weeks of bipartisan negotiations. Every Republican in the Senate voted to block the legislation. 

O’Rourke also took aim at GOP Governor Greg Abbott, who he’s challenging in November’s election, for his ‘stunt’ of bussing migrants to Washington, DC 

A child plays as families live in tents the Movimiento Juventud 2000 shelter with refugee migrants from Central and South American countries including Honduras and Haiti seeking asylum in the United States, as Title 42 and Remain In Mexico border restrictions continue, in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico on April 9

And House Rep. Henry Cuellar became the eleventh Democrat in Congress to break from the White House and sign onto the bill fighting to keep Title 42 in place. 

Cuellar, like O’Rourke, is from Texas. 

‘We all believe in immigration reform, but we don’t want chaos at the border. We want law and order at the border,’ Cuellar told Fox News on Sunday. 

At least a dozen moderate Democrats across the country have publicly broken from the Biden administration’s decision to lift Title 42 at the end of May

Bills keeping Title 42 in place have the backing of six Democrats in the House and five in the Senate.

Cuellar said his party was ‘going to be hit hard by the Republicans’ if its members do not ‘stand up and do the right thing.’  

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blasted the White House moving to lift the policy as an ‘outrageous decision.’

He warned on Fox News Sunday that it ‘will produce a gusher far beyond the open border we already have, produce a gusher of additional people coming in.’

‘Totally inconsistent, by the way, with them asking us for $10 billion for vaccines and therapeutics,’ McConnell added, harkening back to the aid package.

Three GOP-led states — Arizona, Louisiana and Mississippi — are suing to block the White House from letting Title 42 expire. 

Last month, before the policy had an announced expiration date, DHS warned that it was preparing for a worst-case scenario of up to 18,000 people trying to cross the border per day when it was lifted. 

The federal government used the policy to expel thousands of mostly Haitian migrants from under a bridge in El Paso, Texas last year after the crowded, dirty conditions of the tent city they were being housed in sparked a humanitarian outcry.