President Joe Biden has dropped the national border emergency declaration that President Donald Trump established in 2019 to help cut migration and redirect federal funds for the border wall.
“I have determined that the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border was unwarranted,” Biden said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
The letter does not say if Biden will continue to spend several hundred million dollars of unspent border wall funding appropriated in 2020 and 2019 for border-wall projects.
Pro-migration advocates cheered Biden’s move, saying it may help undermine Trump’s 2020 decision to establish Title 42 health rules to block southern migrants during the coronavirus epidemic.
“OMG! President Biden has now TERMINATED the national emergency declaration on the southern border, clearing the way for the repeal of CDC Title 42 expulsion order,” said a tweet from immigration lawyer Nicolette Glazier:
Some — but not all — GOP legislators are warning Biden against removing the Title 42 barrier. Fifty GOP legislators signed a February 9 letter to Biden warning:
Notably, the Trump administration’s policy to use 42 U.S. Code § 265 is perhaps now the only policy ensuring the southern border is not immediately rushed. Unfortunately, however, just last week, you signed another Executive Order threatening the longevity of this crucial policy. If title 42 is indeed rescinded, the daily illegal flow will become catastrophic overnight.
Biden had already directed his deputies to stop constructing the border wall using money gathered under Trump’s national emergency. The funds, mostly from the Pentagon, helped build 450 miles of the border wall.
However, Biden’s letter is unclear about whether he will try to cancel unspent border wall money that Congress duly appropriated in 2019 and 2020. The letter says:
I have also announced that it shall be the policy of my Administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall, and that I am directing a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to that end.
I hereby report to the Congress that the national emergency declared by Proclamation 9844 … is terminated and that the authorities invoked in that proclamation will no longer be used to construct a wall at the southern border.
Biden’s removal of the emergency declaration will help his deputies as they try to raise migration flows into Americans’ jobs, housing, and schools.
Officials are trying to boost the inflow of wage-cutting migration — while also avoiding a 2022 pushback by swing-voting, suburban voters. This zig zag policy requires the agency to raise the influx of migrants while also fending off border-opening demands from their impatient open-borders supporters.