Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry are suing the Biden Administration for ending Title 42 during the worst border crisis in decades.
The three Republican leaders claim the rollback of the health policy will lead to an unprecedented crisis at the southern border that will have a devastating impact nationwide.
“Today, Missouri, Arizona, and Louisiana filed suit against the Biden Administration for rescinding Title 42 amid one of the worst border crises in this country’s history. Title 42 is a crucial tool for controlling the influx of illegal aliens at our Southern border,” Schmidtt said in a statement on Monday.
“Time and again, the Biden Administration has failed to act to secure our Southern border and have terminated successful programs like Title 42 and the ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy. Missouri has been a leader in pushing back on the Biden Administration’s failure at the border, and we filed suit against the cancellation of the ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy and also filed suit to force the Biden Administration to build the Southwest border wall. If the Biden Administration won’t take proactive steps to secure our border and protect our citizenry, we certainly will,” he added.
The three leaders argue that the end of the policy will create an unprecedented surge at the southern border and overwhelm law enforcement agencies and non-governmental organizations. The statement announcing the lawsuit claimed the change could lead to more than a half-million migrants per month.
“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,” Schmitt wrote.
The lawsuit states, “Missouri is directly and adversely affected by increases in illegal immigration at the southern border. Based on recent statistics, approximately 56 out of every 1,000 unlawful aliens who enter the United States end up residing in Missouri. … Missouri is also a destination state and hub for human-trafficking crimes within the United States, due to its situation at the confluence of several major interstate highways. Such crimes disproportionately afflict illegal aliens, and these crimes (and other crimes committed by illegal aliens) impose irreparable law-enforcement and criminal-justice costs on Missouri.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Friday that it will terminate the Title 42 public health policy that allows border officials to turn away migrants because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Trump-era policy has been in effect since March 2020 to turn away thousands of migrants in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
“After considering current public health conditions and an increased availability of tools to fight COVID-19 (such as highly effective vaccines and therapeutics), the CDC Director has determined that an Order suspending the right to introduce migrants into the United States is no longer necessary,” the CDC said in a statement on Friday.
The end of the policy is scheduled to be “implemented on May 23, 2022, to enable DHS time to implement appropriate COVID-19 mitigation protocols,” according to the statement.