President Joe Biden is set to end Title 42, the public health authority turned border control tool, on Thursday, May 11 — a move that is already bringing record-setting droves of border crossers and illegal aliens to the United States-Mexico border.
What is Title 42?
In May 2020, less than a few months into the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, then-President Donald Trump invoked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Title 42 authority for the first time in American history to be used at the southern border.
Title 42, only previously used on foreign imports, gave Border Patrol agents another tool to quickly remove illegal aliens back to their native countries within hours after their arrival at the border for the sake of Americans’ public health.
The authority is akin to Title 8, the border control in U.S. law that gives the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the ability to remove illegal aliens who are not eligible to remain in the U.S. after arriving at the border.
As the Trump administration expected, Title 42 has become an immensely effective border control to stem waves of illegal immigration that otherwise could have seen millions of illegal aliens released into the U.S. interior.
Since Trump imposed Title 42, the authority has ensured that close to three million illegal aliens have been quickly removed from the U.S. following their crossing the border.
What Happens After Title 42?
Last year, President Joe Biden’s administration sought to end Title 42. In April 2022, Breitbart News exclusively reported that DHS officials, behind closed doors, admitted to lawmakers that they had started not using Title 42 in preparation to end the authority.
At the time, border crossers and illegal aliens were being exempted from Title 42 and, as a result, getting released into the U.S. interior with Notices to Appear (NTAs) in federal immigration court.
Eventually, the Biden administration halted its end to Title 42 as states brought cases in federal courts seeking to preserve the authority so as not to overwhelm their communities with a surge of illegal immigration.
Now, the Biden administration has met regulatory requirements to officially end Title 42 on Thursday, May 11 — returning to the period before the authority when Border Patrol had only Title 8 authority to remove illegal aliens from the U.S.
When Title 42 ends, an estimated 400,000 border crossers and illegal aliens are expected to arrive at the border every month — a foreign population that eclipses the resident population of cities like New Orleans, Louisiana; Tampa, Florida; Cleveland, Ohio; and Honolulu, Hawaii.
Currently, as many as 700,000 migrants are waiting to rush the border when Title 42 ends. Many will be released into American communities through a series of processes set up by Biden’s DHS.
How Will Catch and Release Work After Title 42?
Since Biden took office, his administration has greatly expanded its Catch and Release network, which has come to include a number of measures that allow border crossers and illegal aliens to be released into the U.S. interior while they await decisions on their immigration cases.
Many of those released will not have their immigration cases heard before a federal immigration judge for years. Border crossers and illegal aliens released into the U.S. interior and arriving in New York City, for example, will not have to have their cases heard until October 2033 — an ideal outcome for those who do not have eligible asylum claims.
In anticipation of Title 42’s end, the Biden administration is opening so-called Regional Processing Centers in foreign countries south of the border. Those centers will entice tens of thousands of foreign nationals to seek entry to the U.S.
Likewise, Biden’s DHS has expanded the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) One mobile app to allow foreign nationals in Mexico to schedule appointments at the border for release into the U.S. interior. Monthly, DHS is hoping to squeeze 30,000 migrants into the U.S. through the app.
Also in place is a finalized DHS rule that vows to remove illegal aliens from the U.S. after their arrival at the border if they have not used those so-called “lawful pathways” that the administration has set up to bring migrants to the border.
A major exemption to the rule, though, is Biden’s parole pipeline that releases tens of thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens into American communities every month. This parole pipeline, alone, has released more than a million border crossers and illegal aliens into the U.S. interior since its inception — a foreign population that exceeds six states.
Another exemption to the rule is if border crossers and illegal aliens claim they are illiterate and thus cannot read the CBP One mobile app because of a language barrier or by stating that the app has had significant technical problems while they attempted to schedule border appointments.
Does Title 42 Have to End?
Republicans and some Democrats have sought to codify Title 42 into federal law, ensuring it can be used for years to come to stem illegal immigration. Most Democrats and Biden have rejected these initiatives.
Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), most recently, proposed legislation that would keep Title 42 in place for at least two years. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Mike Braun (R-IN), Steve Daines (R-MT), and Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) would impose the Biden-removed “Remain in Mexico” policy to replace Title 42.
Most prominently, Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), along with Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), filed legislation to keep Title 42 and transfer its use from one centered around coronavirus to an authority used to fight the nation’s deadly fentanyl crisis.
Sens. Jim Risch (R-ID), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Steve Daines (R-MT), Ted Budd (R-NC), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Mike Lee (R-UT), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Todd Young (R-IN) are co-sponsoring that specific bill.
What Do Americans Think?
Americans have consistently backed Title 42, polls have shown.
In May 2022, as Biden sought to end Title 42, a Fox News poll found that 63 percent of voters wanted the president to keep the authority in place rather than removing it — including 77 percent of Republicans, 57 percent of swing voters, and 49 percent of Democrats.
The following month, an Axios poll found that Hispanic Americans, in particular, backed keeping Title 42 at the border. While 51 percent of Hispanics support Title 42, only 44 percent oppose the authority.
Hispanics who are the most assimilated to American life are the most likely to back Title 42, with 58 percent of second-generation Hispanics and 59 percent of third-generation Hispanics supporting the authority.
In December 2022, a Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll found that almost 8-in-10 Americans want Title 42 to stay in place at the border, including 66 percent of swing voters, 80 percent of Republicans, and 79 percent of Democrats.
This week, a YouGov/Economist poll revealed that the majority of Americans want Congress and the Biden administration to approve a measure that would, in effect, allow Border Patrol agents to quickly remove illegal aliens at the border, even after Title 42 ends.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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