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Against his will, President Joe Biden got a small reprieve from his self-inflicted border crisis by U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays when he issued a temporary injunction on Friday, May 20 against Biden’s order to end Title 42, which was supposed to happen Monday, May 23.
To the consternation of not a few of his fellow Democrats, Biden’s administration issued the order to end the CDC’s public health order meant to protect Americans from infectious diseases and viruses such as COVID-19 by allowing CBP to immediately expel illegal border-crossers back to Mexico or country of origin in early April.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO APPEAL DECISION BLOCKING BIDEN ADMIN FROM ENDING TITLE 42
Upon issuing the order, more than 20 states including Arizona and Texas which share a border with Mexico filed a lawsuit challenging President Biden’s authority to end Title 42 at this time. Judge Summerhays considered the lawsuit on its merits and determined irreparable harm could be done to the states and issued his injunction.
But now that President Biden has been given a reprieve from his ill-conceived order, will he do right by the American public and capitalize on this ruling by making a course correction on his failed border security policies? Or, will he exercise his executive powers to defy the judiciary, a co-equal branch of government?
If history is a guide and as we rely upon the following evidence, we must conclude the answer is the latter.
First, President Trump applied Title 42 to all countries uniformly. Under his leadership nearly 98 percent of all illegal border-crossers were expelled upon apprehension, which was one of the reasons he was able to keep criminal cartels in check and illegal border crossings to relatively low levels.
But under President Biden, the percentage of Title 42 expulsions dwindled month over month until last month in April he expelled less than 50 percent of those who crossed the border illegally. While President Trump applied Title 42 to all countries, President Biden has given carve-outs to nearly all countries except for a few like Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Second, President Trump ended the catch-and-release program which got rid of the magnet that draws so many people to our borders and allows the cartels to generate billions of dollars in profit. In other words, Trump stopped rewarding people for violating our laws by releasing them into the U.S. and instead delivered a consequence for all who crossed our borders illegally. But upon taking office, President Biden immediately reversed President Trump’s policies and brought back catch-and-release on a scale never before seen. In fact, last month, President Biden released more than 110,000 illegal border-crossers into the U.S. while only expelling approximately 95,000.
Because the Biden administration is actually encouraging people to cross our borders illegally by rewarding them with a free pass into the U.S., is there any wonder why illegal immigration has exploded?
Third, the explosion in illegal immigration is forcing the Border Patrol to assign more agents to administrative duties instead of to enforcement duties. And so, cartels are exploiting deficiencies in the Border Patrol’s operations and the number of got-aways has not only hit record highs but has passed the point of being extremely dangerous to the American public. More than 750,000 illegal border-crossers have been able to evade apprehension after being detected. This number shatters all previous records.
Fourth, historically at this time of the year, the Border Patrol apprehends approximately 1,400 illegal border-crossers per day. But due to President Biden’s policies, including his selective enforcement of Title 42, the number of daily arrests currently stands at more than 7,000. These sheer numbers have caused the destabilization of the southwest border, granting control of large portions to criminal cartels.
While all of this is bad, it can change immediately. And Judge Summerhays gave President Biden the political coverage he needs to make a course correction.
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Under the guise of the rule of law, President Biden can use Summerhays’s ruling to push back against open border activists and implement policies that will allow the Border Patrol to secure the border, something he has failed to do to this point in his administration. If there are any smart people in the White House, they will wake up and realize that although not wanted, Judge Summerhays’s ruling is a boon, and they will urge the president to comply with the ruling completely.
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President Biden created the border crisis, and he has the power to fix it. The only question that remains is, will he?
