On the heels of GOP states filing a lawsuit against the Biden administration for its plans to terminate a Trump-era directive responsible for deporting roughly 1.7 million migrants, former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott tells The Daily Wire that Democrats are unleashing a “tsunami” of illegal aliens into the U.S. that will “keep coming and coming and coming.”
The Biden administration announced Friday that it will lift Title 42 at the end of May, noting in a White House briefing two days prior that it expects a migrant “influx” upon Title 42 being rescinded, The Daily Wire reported. The coronavirus public health directive was implemented in March 2020 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and restricts asylum claims. Republican attorneys general are now suing over its rollback.
Speaking to The Daily Wire, Scott, who was Border Patrol chief under both the Trump and Biden administrations, said repealing Title 42 will only make the currently drastic conditions worse. But he also said that Biden’s poor border response is better illustrated by his rollback of other policies that are not related to a temporary health regulation — which he argued still should not be rescinded at this point in time.
Scott pointed to two Trump-era policies that he thinks should be embraced by the Biden administration: the Migrant Protection Protocols, known as “Remain in Mexico,” and Asylum cooperative agreements with Central American countries.
The former requires non-Mexican asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico while awaiting U.S. immigration court hearings. It has not been implemented as effectively under Biden, The Washington Post reported in February, with low numbers of asylum seekers sent away and courts juggling far fewer cases. The cooperative agreements were with governments in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, and would allow America to transfer asylum seekers to the countries to manage some of the claims, according to the Federal Register. The agreements were terminated last February.
“Those are the biggest two that you can turn on immediately,” said Scott in an interview Monday afternoon. “I’m always going to bring up the fact that the border wall system dramatically improved the effectiveness of border agents because it allowed each individual agent to cover a significantly larger portion of the border.”
“Those three things together would change the dynamics and even the messaging by reimplementing that we’re serious about border security,” he also said. “What that means is we just expect [migrants] to come to our front door, not pour to the ports of entry, climbing through the windows.”
Upon Title 42 officially ending, claims for migrants will be processed under Title 8. This will allow the individuals to wait in the U.S. for their court dates. Over 2 million illegal aliens have crossed into the U.S. since Biden took office, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
“Revoking Title 42 will create an unprecedented surge at the southern border and it will overwhelm law enforcement agencies and non-governmental organizations as well,” the Republicans who filed the lawsuit argue. “The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, (DHS), estimates getting rid of Title 42 will result in as many as 18,000 migrants per day – which could mean 540,000 migrants in a single month.”