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President Joe Biden will speak with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday about immigration at the southern border, an issue Republicans are trying to elevate ahead of the November midterm election.
The two leaders will ‘discuss how to manage unprecedented flows of migration. Given our shared border we must do this together,’ a senior administration official told reporters on a briefing call ahead of the virtual meeting, calling the topic a ‘top subject’ for their conversation.
The call comes as the Biden administration was prepared to lift Title 42, the public health order that has turned back thousands of migrants at the border because of the covid pandemic.
The administration announced it would be lifted on May 23 but there is a temporary block on that by the courts after several states sued, citing concerns about the expected rise in migrants expected if Title 42 is rescinded.
Biden said he will follow whatever the courts decide on Title 42. Democrats are split on the issue with vulnerable lawmakers wanting a more detailed plan from the administration on how it will handle the rise in immigrants and progressives wanting Title 42 gone.
Republicans argue it should stay in place. The issue is becoming a political hot potato ahead of the November midterm election, which will decide control of Congress.
President Joe Biden will speak with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday about immigration at the southern border
Officials said Biden and Obrador will discuss their options should Title 42 be lifted.
‘We really will need to rely on our partnership more than ever to have a coordinated response to surge, additional staff and resources on both sides of our border to make sure that we have an orderly and humane response. So yes, I think this will definitely be a top subject of conversation today,’ a senior administration official sai on the call.
The two men also will talk about the upcoming Summit of the Americas, which the United States will host in Los Angeles in June. It convenes leaders from North, South and Central America and the Caribbean.
Biden has tried to implement what he’s called a more humane policy at the southern border but is caught between the two wings of his party as he tries to find a path forward.
Progressive Democrats urged on Thursday urged him to end Title 42, calling it ‘racist,’ ‘cruel,’ and ‘xenophobic.’
Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts said the policy, originally put into place during Donald Trump’s presidency, is ‘fundamentally racist, unjust and cruel.’
‘This unconscionable racist and xenophobic Trump era policy was in effect for too long. It did nothing but in effect inflicted unspeakable harm on migrants – particularly black and brown migrants – denying millions their fundamental right to seek asylum,’ she said during a press conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts called Title 42 ‘ fundamentally racist, unjust and cruel’
Rep. Pramila Jayapal: ‘Title 42 isn’t just xenophobic, it’s also hypocritical’
Border Patrol agents apprehend a group of migrants near downtown El Paso
In March 2020, the CDC under the Trump administration issued a public health order allowing for the rapid expulsion of unauthorized border crossers and asylum seekers citing COVID-19 concerns.
Under the order, thousands of migrants were turned back at the border, citing the pandemic.
And since that is not considered deportation, the migrants are not afforded the right to make a case to stay in the U.S. before an immigration judge. Most migrants subject to Title 42 measures are returned to Mexico within hours.
‘This policy was never about keeping anybody safe. Period. This Trump era policy was always about stoking anti immigrant fear and hate and undermining our humanitarian obligations to asylum seekers in this country,’ Pressley noted.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Oregon, the head of Congressional Progressive Caucus, said ‘Title 42 isn’t just xenophobic, it’s also hypocritical.’
‘It has harmed millions of people who are escaping war and poverty and famine. Title 42 should never have been put in place,’ she noted.
She said the order was the work of Stephen Miller, a Trump adviser with a tough anti-immigration stance.
‘It was rather instigated by Stephen Miller, Trump’s chief anti immigrant architect who was hell bent on eliminating all legal pathways into the United States,’ said Jayapal, who immigrated to the United States from India when she was 16.
Miller had pushed the idea to invoke Title 42 at the U.S.-Mexico border as early as 2018, long before COVID-19 emerged, The New York Times had reported. Miller was behind several Trump policies designed to cut down on the number of migrants to the United States.
‘Title 42 is a policy failure. Plain and simple. It does nothing to prevent COVID from being spread. And by circumventing immigration law, it actually goes against the principles on which our country was founded. So ending it was the right decision,’ Jayapal noted.
But at the other end of the Democratic spectrum are lawmakers worried about the expected rise in migration and how those needs will be met.
The Department of Homeland Security predicts up to 18,000 daily encounters with migrants — more than double the current average — when Title 42 ends.
To deal with the matter, the agency has released a plan that includes vaccinating migrants in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody, adding 600 CBP agents across the southwest border, and increasing the capacity of federal holding centers from 12,000 to 18,000.
And President Biden said on Thursday that his administration would comply with the courts on Title 42, the public health order being used to turn away migrants at the border.
The administration had planned to end the use of the Trump-era order on May 23 but a federal judge in Louisiana has temporarily blocked that move until a further hearing on the matter.
Biden said he will leave the fate of the public health policy in the judiciary’s hands.
‘We had proposed to eliminate that policy by the end of May. The court has said we can’t so far and what the court says we’re going to do. The court could come along and say we cannot do that and that’s it,’ Biden told reporters at the White House when asked about the situation.
The court order blocks the administration from beginning to wind-down Title 42 ahead of its planned May 23 conclusion, but doesn’t stop the policy being axed on that date.
President Joe Biden said he would comply with the courts on Title 42
Asylum-seekers gather at the Plaza Las Americas migrant tent camp in Reynosa, Mexico – experts expect a surge in border crossings if Title 42 is lifted
Migrants of different nationalities walk in a caravan, through the main avenues of Tapachula in Chiapas, Mexico
US District Judge Robert Summerhays has scheduled a critical hearing on May 13 in Lafayette to hear arguments on whether to block Title 42 from ending as planned 10 days later.
Twenty-one states have sued to stop the order from being lifted, citing concerns about the impact on their states due to the surge in migrants expected to enter the U.S. after it’s lifted.
The issue is rapidly becoming a political hot potato ahead of the November midterm election, which will decide control of Congress.
Migrants have been expelled more than 1.7 million times under the policy.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas insisted to Congress this week that the situation at the southern border is being ‘effectively managed’ by the administration.
‘We inherited a broken and dismantled system that is already under strain,’ Mayorkas said in opening remarks at both hearings on Wednesday. ‘It was not built to manage the current levels of migration flow.’
‘Only Congress can fix it,’ he insisted.
He also also solely blamed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for repealing Title 42, claiming that the CDC has ‘exclusive jurisdiction’ of the public health measure.
But, he noted, the administration has a plan in place.
‘Under this administration, our department has been executing a comprehensive strategy to secure our borders and rebuild our immigration system,’ Mayorkas said in his opening remarks. ‘With the Title 42 public health order set to be lifted, we expect migration levels to increase as smugglers seek to take advantage of and profit from vulnerable migrants.’
Republicans repeatedly hammered Mayorkas on border strategy when he testified on Capitol Hill.