Officials of both parties warn U.S. is ill-prepared for lifting of border restrictions

Republicans and Democrats are warning that there could soon be an unmanageable influx of migrants at the southern border of the United States with the expected end this week of Title 42, a Trump-era immigration policy that allowed border agents to expel migrants for public health reasons during the coronavirus pandemic.

On ABC’s “This Week,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) warned that if the courts did not intervene to keep Title 42 in place, it would be “total chaos” at the southern border.

“Whether it’s covid or some other issue, when you have people coming across the globe without knowing at all what their health status is, that almost by definition is a public health risk. There’s every reason to keep that in place,” said Abbott, who along with other Republican officials spent much of the pandemic fighting coronavirus-related government restrictions.

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that the Biden administration could end Title 42 on Wednesday unless the Supreme Court intervenes. Republican officials have signaled in court records that they would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

On Saturday, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser (D) declared a state of emergency ahead of Title 42’s expiration, citing an increasing number of asylum seekers sleeping in the streets of the Texas border city in dangerously cold temperatures.

“I said from the beginning that I would call [a state of emergency] when I felt that either our asylum seekers or our community was not safe, and I really believe that today our asylum seekers are not safe,” Leeser said during a news conference Saturday.

Leeser also said he had spoken to federal officials who had said they believed El Paso could see 4,000 to 6,000 new migrants on Wednesday, when Title 42 expires, a jump from the more than 2,000 migrants the El Paso sector of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is currently getting each day.

“I said, ‘Do you believe that you guys can handle it today?’ The answer was no,” Leeser said. “And when I heard the answer was no, I knew we had to do something right away.”

Friday’s court ruling represented a victory for immigration advocates in their quest to fully reopen the borders to asylum seekers who have been expelled without a chance to plead their cases. The Biden administration also agrees that the hard-line policy should end.

However, officials from both parties have warned that immigration centers that process migrants could soon be even more overwhelmed. Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) visited an immigration center along the border, and said it was “a federal government issue” that similar immigration sites were already at capacity.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) defended the removal of Title 42, saying it was not intended to be immigration policy, but public health policy.

“We’re in a much different place when it comes to covid today than we were two, almost three years ago. So it’s past time for Title 42 to be gone,” Padilla said on ABC’s “This Week.” “The administration has made it clear that while Title 42 is technically lifted, they’re ready to put in place a system at the border that keeps them fairer but also more orderly and more safe.”

But on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — as well as Reps. Tony Gonzales (R-Tex.) and Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.), who represent parts of Texas along Mexican border — argued that the Biden administration was not prepared to lift Title 42.

“We have a crisis of the border. Everyone can see that,” Manchin said. “I think everyone realizes that something has to be done. [Title 42] needs to be extended until we can get a really, truly immigration reform. Immigration reform will not happen in our country until we all come on both sides of the aisle.”

Gonzales described a “dire situation” in El Paso, where last week he visited a migrant processing center with more than 500 people held in a large pod that typically holds about 100 people.

“There’s one bathroom. The odor is terrible and there’s eight pods in there,” Gonzales said. “What I saw shocked me, and I wanted to share that with the world. It’s not about politics. It’s not about, you know, trying to create this image that isn’t there. This is the reality.”

Gonzales called on the Biden administration to reinstate programs that put immigration judges at the border, and to immediately return migrants back to their country of origin if they do not qualify for asylum.

“Enough with the finger-pointing,” Gonzales said. “I don’t care how we got here. How do we get out of here?”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week the Biden administration was prepared to lift Title 42 “in a safe and humane way” — having secured funding, placed 23,000 agents at the border and launched an anti-smuggling initiative. She also urged Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

“Look, we also need Congress to act. It is important that they deliver the resources we requested for the border security and management. They need to pass the comprehensive immigration reform that we have put forth,” Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday. She blamed the Trump administration, saying it had “completely gutted the system.”

On Sunday, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) declined to answer when asked if he agreed that Title 42 should be lifted, instead blaming congressional inaction for the lack of progress on immigration reform.

“Maybe with this new Republican House and Democratic Senate, we finally get serious about immigration reform and quit demagoguing this issue by pointing fingers and saying that the disaster is about to happen,” Brown said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think that the [Biden] administration will figure this out short term, but it’s clear we’ve got to get serious as a body, and it’s going to take both parties.”

Maria Sacchetti and Arelis R. Hernández contributed to this report.