The expected surge of migrants at the southern border falls into the lap of Pres. Joe Biden’s administration, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. said Thursday.
“It is a catastrophe,” she said during a virtual press briefing of the administration’s failure to put deterrents in place and have ways to handle the end of Title 42.
The policy was put in place in early 2020 to allow the U.S. to keep most immigrants out because of the pandemic.
But it ended Thursday night as thousands more migrants gathered to try to seek asylum.
Calling it an “open border,” Capito said 5 million migrants have tried to seek entry since Biden took office, with 10,000 to 11,000 a day showing up recently at the border in anticipation of the end of Title 42, with that number possibly hitting as many as 18,000 once it goes away.
“This puts an enormous strain on us, on our Texas and Arizona neighbors, and Californians,” she said. “It is just a disaster … and the President is allowing it to happen.”
Biden said earlier this week to expect a “chaotic” scene at the border once Title 42 ends.
Capito and other senators introduced a bill to give the President the right to evoke some of Title 42’s provisions for two years to give time to better prepare for the surge.
“But there is no hope of that being passed in the immediate future,” she said. “It is very frustrating. I am very concerned about the drugs, as you know, as we all are. We see fentanyl killing our young people. We see it the largest killer of 18 to 35 year olds in this country.”
Capito said the administration has a “catch and release” policy and it is a strain on the entire country.
“Legal immigration is welcome, but this is not. This is illegal and people are skirting the system and just coming in in droves.”
Capito said migrants show up at the border and get “processed,” then sent into the U.S. for maybe eight years to wait for a hearing on asylum.
“There has to be deterrents,” she said. “There has to be a reason why people won’t come or try to come through more legal measures or do what the Biden administration is trying to push them to do — applying for asylum in their home countries before they come. But that is not working.”
Capito said there are no incentives for anybody to do it the legal way.
The Remain in Mexico policy that was used during the Trump administration should be reinstated, she said.
“You get processed, you are going to wait for a court date, fine, but you have to wait in Mexico,” she said. “That deters people. The numbers were way down then.”
Migrants are no longer just coming from Mexico or Central America.
“We are apprehending Iranians, Chinese, these are not all economic immigrants from Guatemala that are trying to find a job,” she said. “This is now such a morass of human trafficking, that is enriching cartels that are making the fentanyl that is killing our kids.”
Capito said the cartels don’t care if a mother and child are fleeing a bad situation. “They only want the $5,000 they are charging them.”
“The whole thing is a crying shame,” she said.
One solution is to bring back the Remain in Mexico policy.
Another is to expedite the asylum hearing, she said. “Let’s have more resources down there that says, ‘Hey, look. You have a credible claim, you go over here. Your claim is not credible. You are not going to make it. You go over here.’”
Sending them inside the U.S. to wait eight years for those determinations does not work.
Capito said another measure should be in place to handle the many repeat offenders that are caught at the border, turned away and keep coming back.
That may mean some kind of criminal penalty.
“I just think we have to get tough,” she said. “The President is unwilling to do that.”
Sen. Joe Manchin released a statement Thursday on the end of Title 42.
“We are one day from the end of Title 42 and still the Biden Administration has no viable solution to prevent an unmanageable surge of migrants at our southern border,” he said. “There are multiple commonsense solutions to this crisis, including my bipartisan bill that would give the Administration a two-year temporary expulsion authority for migrants attempting to illegally enter the U.S. without inspection or proper documentation.”
Manchin said the House also has a bill that could address the crisis.
“While I do not support every provision, Republicans in the House of Representatives are at least working on a border security bill to fill the leadership vacuum created by this Administration,” he said. “Our country cannot maintain our superpower status if we cannot control our own border.”
Manchin was referring to a bill, the Secure Border Act of 2023, that passed Thursday which would, among other things, bring back some of the Trump administration measures, start extending the wall and mandate that enough Border Patrol agents be hired to keep a staff of 22,000, along with updated technology.