Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich on Friday wrote to President Biden urging him to reverse a reported plan to rollback Title 42 public health protections that allow for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the southern border after figures show there were nearly 190,000 attempted crossings in June alone.
“It would be unacceptable and dangerous to end this policy, particularly as our country deals with the worst border crisis in 20 years,” Brnovich said in a letter to Biden. He pointed to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) figures showing that 188,829 migrants were encountered at the southern border in June, a 5% rise overall from May and that included a 25% increase in encounters of family units.
“If you rescind this effective policy, illegal crossings and human and drug smuggling will only further explode,” he said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) order allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants, often within minutes and without detention, at the border.
The Biden administration has kept the authority in place, despite pressure and legal action from liberal activists, although it has refused to apply it to unaccompanied children. According to CBP’s statistics, just over 8,000 family units were expelled via Title 42 out of the more than 55,000 family unit encounters. Overall, 104,907 of the 188,829 encounters led to Title 42 expulsions.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said the agency is listening to the experts and the decision on when to repeal it for migrant families and single adults. But Axios reported that the administration is planning to end Title 42 for migrant families as early as the end of the month. The New York Times reported that Title 42 could also be lifted for single adults in the summer.
