Ending Title 42: Biden’s Border Policies Are ‘Unmitigated Disaster,’ Says Texas Governor

Texas Governor Greg Abbott quickly called President Joe Biden’s decision to end the Title 42 coronavirus protection protocol “reckless.” Abbott added that the president’s “open-border policies are an unmitigated disaster for national security.”

“Ending Title 42 expulsions will signal to cartels and migrants alike that our southern border is now wide open — inciting even more violence, more trafficking, and more lawlessness,” Governor Abbott said in a written statement following the Biden administration announcement that it would end the Title 42 protocol. “President Biden clearly has no intention to secure the border by faithfully executing Congress’ command to detain and deport illegal immigrants.”

The governor said the decision “will only further endanger Texans, and the State of Texas must take even more unprecedented action to keep our communities safe by using any and all constitutional powers to protect its own territory.”

President Joe Biden’s administration announced on Friday that it will end the Title 42 policy on May 23, Breitbart News reported. The move is expected to bring an even-larger wave of migrants to the U.S. southern border.

“We are increasing our capacity to process new arrivals, [and] evaluate asylum requests,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a written statement.

Governor Abbott called Biden’s open-border policies “an unmitigated disaster for national security.”

“His recklessness has forced the State of Texas to take unprecedented steps to fill the gaps — including deploying Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and over 10,000 Texas National Guard soldiers, jailing illegal immigrants who are charged with trespassing, and becoming the first state ever to build a wall to secure the border,” the Texas governor explained. “Instead of listening to the millions of Americans that his administration has endangered — and instead of enforcing immigration laws passed by Congress — President Biden has chosen to jeopardize the safety and security of those very Americans he swore to protect and defend by ending Title 42 expulsions.”

The move by the president’s team comes as more than 209,000 migrants crossed the border from Mexico into the U.S. in March, Breitbart Texas reported. The apprehension of 209,000 migrants in March represents the highest number of migrant apprehensions for one month since March 2000 — the last year of the Clinton administration. It also breaks the Biden-era record of 200,658 set in July 2021.

The March apprehensions put the total during the first six months of Fiscal Year 2022 at more than one million, Breitbart reported. A source revealed the startling number of apprehensions appear to be still on the increase.

The source says nearly 8,000 migrants were apprehended on Wednesday, breaking the single-day record for migrant encounters at the southwest border. Nearly 7 of 10 migrants apprehended since October 1 are single adults, according to the source. The source says limited removal pathways are contributing to overcrowding at Border Patrol processing facilities.