WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — Two members of the Texas congressional delegation joined 34 other lawmakers in signing a letter this week to the director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, expressing concern about the country’s continued expulsion of migrants who cross the border.
Democrats Joaquin Castro of San Antonio and Sylvia Garcia of Houston joined the chorus of critics questioning the Biden administration’s use of the Trump-era Title 42 policy to remove people from the country. They’re calling for the policy to be discontinued.
Title 42 is a CDC rule that allows border patrol to remove people because of the pandemic. Former President Donald Trump instituted it shortly after the pandemic began in 2020. Under President Biden, the CDC has kept it in place.
“The letter clearly outlines the dismay and disappointment that many of my colleagues and I share (about) the Trump administration’s Title 42 policy that’s almost 2 years old still being in place,” Garcia told KENS 5 in a Zoom interview. “It's just a bad policy. And we wanted to just get an update from the current administration to find out just what they're doing and what the next steps are and what we could do to make sure that the policy is discontinued.”
Many human-rights groups oppose the policy, partly because people who cross into the U.S. are often removed without their asylum claims being heard. But also because those asylum-seekers are often returned to Mexico, where the nonprofit Human Rights First has documented hundreds of instances of kidnappings, assaults and other abuses against migrants.
“The administration has not shown us justification for continuing this policy,” Garcia said. “And I think we can find a way to test and vaccinate if we need to, to ensure that there is no public health concern.”
In the letter, addressed to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, lawmakers said that “public health experts have repeatedly stated that there is no public health imperative for Title 42 expulsions.”
The letter also states the policy “unlawfully restricts the legal and human right to seek asylum,” forcing “the expulsion of people fleeing persecution and torture.”
Lawmakers are asking CDC officials a number of questions as well, including how the agency determines that asylum-seekers pose a public health threat and “are not amenable to the same mitigation measures as those applied to other visitors/travelers who are allowed to cross the border,” the letter said.
“People generally want Title 42 to go away,” said Jon Anfinsen, vice president for the National Border Patrol Council. “The problem is that there's no alternative.”
Anfinsen is also the local president for the border patrol union in the Del Rio area.
“If we just turn it off like a light switch, it's going to cause immense problems for the Border Patrol,” Anfinsen said. “Just because we now are going to deal with the massive influx of people. But it also makes it less safe for the people in our custody. And for the agents who are having to do this difficult job.”
Anfinsen said the primary concern for his organization and its members is a potentially massive responsibility: if Title 42 was discontinued, everyone border authorities apprehended would have to be taken into custody via processing or detention facilities.
“If there was some plan in place to allow people to orderly request asylum, it would make our job a bit easier,” Anfinsen said. “There isn’t that process in place and everyone knows that. So, they just swim across the river, or they crossed through the desert out west. And we now have to deal with them because they are in the country.”
Anfinsen is one of many people calling on Congress to come up with long-term solutions to the current immigration situation.
“The letter talks about a lot of the dire circumstances that people are finding themselves in, and we can sympathize with that,” said Anfinsen. “But the problem is, when we're dealing with hundreds of thousands of people who are crossing up and down the border, that's not sustainable, because our agency is not equipped to deal with that.”
In April of 2021, Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), along with Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-TX-28) and Tony Gonzalez (R-TX-23), proposed The Bipartisan Border Solutions Act—a bipartisan, bicameral legislation “to respond to the surge in migrants coming across our southern border.”
It’s been stuck in committees ever since. Cornyn’s spokesperson told KENS 5 the senator has asked for a hearing on this bill many times, including last week.
Congressman Cuellar was able to secure some of the bill’s provisions in the House Homeland Security Appropriations bill, which is expected to pass in March.
CDC officials told KENS 5 that, following its latest required assessment of Title 42 completed earlier this month – including COVID-19 status, public health risks and developments from the omicron variant – the agency determined the policy will remain in effect. Another assessment will occur in about two months’ time.