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Joe Biden is wrong to end Title 42

Immigrants in San Luis, Arizona in May 2022, having crossed the Mexico border. Credit: Getty.

December 20, 2022 - 7:10am

If two million people illegally crossing America’s southern border in just one year was bad, things are about to get a lot worse. On Wednesday, a Trump-era policy aimed at curbing illegal immigration is set to expire. The policy, called Title 42, was part of the U.S. public health code, and allowed border patrol agents to immediately turn people back to Mexico due to the threat posed by the pandemic. Under Title 42, the U.S. expelled upwards of two million illegal immigrants.

We may not be in a pandemic anymore, but given the Biden administration’s lax attitude toward the southern border, Title 42 has effectively been the only means of border control currently in operation, and that policy is now set to lapse after an appeals court denied a GOP effort to keep it in place.

Border patrol agents, border towns and southern states are bracing for the huge influx of migrants in already taxed systems. El Paso has declared a state of emergency. But they aren’t the only ones. New York City Mayor Eric Adams released a panicked statement on Sunday about the influx of 1,000 migrants a day that he is expecting to arrive in New York once Title 42 expires.

“Our shelter system is full, and we are nearly out of money, staff and space,” Adams said in his statement. “Truth be told, if corrective measures are not taken soon, we may very well be forced to cut or curtail programs New Yorkers rely on, and the pathway to house thousands more is uncertain. These are not choices we want to make, but they may become necessary, and I refuse to be forced to choose new arrivals over current New Yorkers.”

Unfortunately, that choice has already been made — and not in favour of New Yorkers. The Independent Budget Office projected that the city will spend $600 million a year to provide shelter, education, health care and legal aid to the asylum seekers who have already made their way to New York. Meanwhile, New York City’s public housing residents have a backlog of repairs to the tune of billions of dollars.

Immigration advocates argue that Title 42 unfairly denied migrants the opportunity to seek asylum. But reporting has repeatedly found that the majority of the migrants illegally crossing the border are economic migrants and their families who don’t have a legitimate asylum claim. In fact, it’s something Nancy Pelosi herself admitted in her infamous comments about how we need these illegal migrants to “pick crops.”

Ironically, after calling Trump’s border policies cruel and inhumane, President Biden now seems poised to start copying his predecessor, Axios reports. The Biden administration is considering imposing a version of Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy which would bar single adults who cross illegally when they have not first applied for asylum in countries they passed through in order to reach the U.S., as well as possibly ramping up criminal prosecutions for illegal border crossings.

Democrats cast Trump and his base as cruel, hateful bigots for thinking that this country should have a secure border. They called them racists for thinking American citizens should come first, smeared them as white people obsessed with losing status to “people of colour.” Leftist journalists and academics and politicians went to great lengths to cast their fellow Americans as hateful — only to have it made clear what their privilege had protected them from having to acknowledge.

It’s not morality but privilege that protects you from having to worry that an immigrant will take your job. It’s not virtue but economic security that grants you the ability to put signs in your window saying “Immigrants are welcome here!” — though we saw how far those signs got the migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard.

Liberals “welcoming immigrants” aren’t better than the working-class Americans who vote on restricting immigration: they’re just richer.

But it seems that now, even some on the Left are finding their voices and are able to admit the truth: the southern border is a mess, and this isn’t a partisan issue. Americans living in every part of the country are going to feel the impact of millions more illegal migrants crossing the border.


Batya Ungar-Sargon is Deputy Opinion Editor of Newsweek and author of Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy

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Gerald Arcuri
Gerald Arcuri
2 years ago

Arguing facts, logic and predictable consequences with the woke progressive elites is a fool’s errand. Joe Biden and his ilk – starting with Barack Obama – don’t give a rat’s ass about what illegal immigration does to the United States, despite their high-flown rhetoric. Actions speak louder than words. This is why Donald Trump – no friend of conservatives like me – could be elected in 2016. Most Americans see straight through the lies of the post-liberal establishment, they hate what they see being done to this country, and they feel powerless to stop it. They are tired of lies and bullshit from Democrats. Weimar America. Illegal immigration, unfettered abortion on demand, militant LGBTQ and special interest group arrogance and an extreme environmentalist cabal are powder kegs which will blow this democracy to pieces. As the elite jet off to sunnier climes. They couldn’t care less.
Nero is fiddling, and Rome is being burnt to the ground.
Thank you, Mr. Biden. The daftest, most mendacious human being to occupy the White House in U.S history.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
2 years ago
Reply to  Gerald Arcuri

“Most Americans see straight through the lies of the post-liberal establishment, they hate what they see being done to this country…”
Yet they voted in record numbers for this? I don’t believe it.

Buena Vista
Buena Vista
2 years ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

Nor should you believe it, because it isn’t true.

Terry M
Terry M
2 years ago
Reply to  Buena Vista

It is true according to most polls on the issues. But when TRUMP is mentioned things change. He so alienated people they will vote against their better judgment to thwart him.

Terry M
Terry M
2 years ago
Reply to  Buena Vista

It is true according to most polls on the issues. But when TRUMP is mentioned things change. He so alienated people they will vote against their better judgment to thwart him.

David Kingsworthy
David Kingsworthy
2 years ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

You can certainly believe it, a rabidly progressive MSM combined with a largely ignorant, blue-veiled urban populace — voila, Democrats win.

Buena Vista
Buena Vista
2 years ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

Nor should you believe it, because it isn’t true.

David Kingsworthy
David Kingsworthy
2 years ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

You can certainly believe it, a rabidly progressive MSM combined with a largely ignorant, blue-veiled urban populace — voila, Democrats win.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
2 years ago
Reply to  Gerald Arcuri

“Most Americans see straight through the lies of the post-liberal establishment, they hate what they see being done to this country…”
Yet they voted in record numbers for this? I don’t believe it.

Gerald Arcuri
Gerald Arcuri
2 years ago

Arguing facts, logic and predictable consequences with the woke progressive elites is a fool’s errand. Joe Biden and his ilk – starting with Barack Obama – don’t give a rat’s ass about what illegal immigration does to the United States, despite their high-flown rhetoric. Actions speak louder than words. This is why Donald Trump – no friend of conservatives like me – could be elected in 2016. Most Americans see straight through the lies of the post-liberal establishment, they hate what they see being done to this country, and they feel powerless to stop it. They are tired of lies and bullshit from Democrats. Weimar America. Illegal immigration, unfettered abortion on demand, militant LGBTQ and special interest group arrogance and an extreme environmentalist cabal are powder kegs which will blow this democracy to pieces. As the elite jet off to sunnier climes. They couldn’t care less.
Nero is fiddling, and Rome is being burnt to the ground.
Thank you, Mr. Biden. The daftest, most mendacious human being to occupy the White House in U.S history.

Jonas Moze
Jonas Moze
2 years ago

Outsourcing one’s Immigration Policy to Mexican Criminal Drug Cartels has a certain amount of potential issues that I hope the Biden White House fully considered before making that the law of the land.

Then allowing immigrants, who will then eventually be allowed full access to USA ‘Entitlements’ like Social Security and SSI pension and lifetime disability, Medicare and Medicaid free Medial, old home care till death, food stamps, housing subsidy, and on and on – you know, those ‘Unfunded Mandates’ projected to exceed funding by $70 – $100 Trillion in the next 30 years, and will have to be paid by borrowing multiples of 100% GDP Debt. That sounds problematic.

Then I work in construction – which was once the work done by the young men who left school with no other qualification, and actually allowed then to gain skills and make a actual living by hard work. Well that is over. I speak from Real Knowledge – almost 100% of unskilled construction is done by young Hispanic migrants, leaving the unskilled white and black youths to die of fentanal overdose and gunshot as they have no work and job to use their energies and give them a feel of worth and an income with honour.

This is the problem of allowing the super wealthy globalist elites, Bankman-Fried, Zuckerberg, Soros, Gates, to buy the presidental elections and put in a man like ‘The Big Guy’ who hates the country, the people, the culture, and the philosophy America was founded on.

Oh, Well – Brave New 1984, it looks like you have been created to replace the old system in the West. Hope it works out for the best.

Jonas Moze
Jonas Moze
2 years ago

Outsourcing one’s Immigration Policy to Mexican Criminal Drug Cartels has a certain amount of potential issues that I hope the Biden White House fully considered before making that the law of the land.

Then allowing immigrants, who will then eventually be allowed full access to USA ‘Entitlements’ like Social Security and SSI pension and lifetime disability, Medicare and Medicaid free Medial, old home care till death, food stamps, housing subsidy, and on and on – you know, those ‘Unfunded Mandates’ projected to exceed funding by $70 – $100 Trillion in the next 30 years, and will have to be paid by borrowing multiples of 100% GDP Debt. That sounds problematic.

Then I work in construction – which was once the work done by the young men who left school with no other qualification, and actually allowed then to gain skills and make a actual living by hard work. Well that is over. I speak from Real Knowledge – almost 100% of unskilled construction is done by young Hispanic migrants, leaving the unskilled white and black youths to die of fentanal overdose and gunshot as they have no work and job to use their energies and give them a feel of worth and an income with honour.

This is the problem of allowing the super wealthy globalist elites, Bankman-Fried, Zuckerberg, Soros, Gates, to buy the presidental elections and put in a man like ‘The Big Guy’ who hates the country, the people, the culture, and the philosophy America was founded on.

Oh, Well – Brave New 1984, it looks like you have been created to replace the old system in the West. Hope it works out for the best.

Clara B
Clara B
2 years ago

Wealthy liberals advocating mass migration is an example of what Rob Henderson calls ‘luxury beliefs’ – ‘cool’ ideas espoused by elites that have an economic and social impact on the less well off.

Clara B
Clara B
2 years ago

Wealthy liberals advocating mass migration is an example of what Rob Henderson calls ‘luxury beliefs’ – ‘cool’ ideas espoused by elites that have an economic and social impact on the less well off.

Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
2 years ago

Finally, an opportunity to consider some of Trump’s policy choices; to this day so many self-interested parties would rather just label him and his supporters as racists and be done with it.

The move to invoke Title 42 because of the Wuhan flu was an effective, if opportunistic, way to discourage illegal immigration on the southern border. Besides this and building the wall, the Trump administration made heroic efforts to revise disastrous immigration policies.

An additional effect of Title 42 was to reveal the establishment hypocrisy surrounding Wuhan flu: if the same lawmakers who supported lockdowns, mask mandates and the like had had their way, illegal immigrants (not to mention American rioters) would not have been subject to the same public health restrictions as ordinary American citizens.

Now Biden, after effectively enacting an open border policy, as well as (belatedly) announcing the end of the pandemic, is apparently turning back Venezuelan refugees under Title 42. Typical high-handed, or else just blundering, Biden. (Or perhaps it has dawned on him that Venezuelan immigrants are extremely unlikely ever to support the Democratic party in its present form.)

And yet Biden will likely seek to extend Title 42–again, after announcing the end of the so-called pandemic!

Mayor Adams is no great leader–though he’s certainly an improvement over the putrid DeBlasio–but whatever his ultimate aims, at the moment he is a thorn in the side of the Democratic establishment on this question.

Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
2 years ago

Finally, an opportunity to consider some of Trump’s policy choices; to this day so many self-interested parties would rather just label him and his supporters as racists and be done with it.

The move to invoke Title 42 because of the Wuhan flu was an effective, if opportunistic, way to discourage illegal immigration on the southern border. Besides this and building the wall, the Trump administration made heroic efforts to revise disastrous immigration policies.

An additional effect of Title 42 was to reveal the establishment hypocrisy surrounding Wuhan flu: if the same lawmakers who supported lockdowns, mask mandates and the like had had their way, illegal immigrants (not to mention American rioters) would not have been subject to the same public health restrictions as ordinary American citizens.

Now Biden, after effectively enacting an open border policy, as well as (belatedly) announcing the end of the pandemic, is apparently turning back Venezuelan refugees under Title 42. Typical high-handed, or else just blundering, Biden. (Or perhaps it has dawned on him that Venezuelan immigrants are extremely unlikely ever to support the Democratic party in its present form.)

And yet Biden will likely seek to extend Title 42–again, after announcing the end of the so-called pandemic!

Mayor Adams is no great leader–though he’s certainly an improvement over the putrid DeBlasio–but whatever his ultimate aims, at the moment he is a thorn in the side of the Democratic establishment on this question.

Abe Stamm
Abe Stamm
2 years ago

The United States has always been a land of opportunity for LEGAL immigrants, though an absolute nightmare for its native peoples. The LEGAL process of applying for American citizenship is the historical gateway…not the illegal “invasion” that’s occurring at the southern border today, whereby anybody from anywhere, unvetted, can walk into the country and seek sanctuary, taxpayer provided public assistance, and potential permanent U.S. citizenship.
There’s currently a backlog of 9 MILLION people who have LEGALLY applied for family and employment resident visas, or “green cards”. There’s a Diversity Visa Green Card Lottery system: a yearly, computer-generated, random opportunity for 55,000 potential immigrants to LEGALLY “win” their permanent residency status…limited to people from countries that don’t already already have large immigration representation, like Mexico…and yes, the United Kingdom, though we’ll let folk from Northern Ireland enter the lottery.
I have a friend, a Mexican immigrant, who LEGALLY applied for 20 consecutive years for permanent U.S. residency, which required hiring a lawyer each year to plead his case in immigration court, before he finally received his green card last year. During that time he LEGALLY worked as a laborer, a carpenter’s assistance, honing his skills, to the point where he’s now a successful general contractor. He visited Mexico for the first time in two decades as a LEGAL resident of the United States…which allowed him the LEGAL right to return back across the border after reuniting with his relatives.
My ancestors LEGALLY immigrated to the United States between the 1880’s and 1890’s, fleeing persecution from the long forgotten antisemitic events, called “pogroms”, which were targeted at Jews living within The Russian Empire. As an aside, over 100,000 Jews were murdered in series of pogroms between 1918-1921 in what is now Ukraine. During the Holocaust, 1.5 million Jews were exterminated within Ukraine, 25% of the European total, a fact conveniently ignored by the pro-Ukraine media who extoll the righteousness of the Ukrainian people warring against their forever-evil Russian invader.

david siegel
david siegel
2 years ago
Reply to  Abe Stamm

The Holocaust was a very long time ago now, Abe. You can’t “out-jew” me on the issues. Half my family was exterminated. But it’s time to move on. Hoping that Russia wins its war in Ukraine because of the Holocaust would be like favoring North Korea if it decided to attack Germany. We live in a different world now. We should support our current allies and not formulate foreign policy on the basis of settling old scores. Putin is an autocratic thug. Zelensky is the duly elected Jewish leader of a democracy. And you can’t figure out which side to support?

Abe Stamm
Abe Stamm
2 years ago
Reply to  david siegel

I don’t know what you mean by “out-Jew” you? The Holocaust body count of my family, from Poland,Ukraine and Lithuania was extreme, so extreme that I no longer have any European relatives. When I was a child, and was shown still photos and movie footage shot at the extermination camps when they were liberated after the war, it was taught to me by my Jewish elders, including the Holocaust survivors who sat in the congregation of my synagogue, that we will “NEVER FORGET!”. There’s no moving on. The level of antisemitic hate crimes being perpetrated in the New York-metropolitan area, where over 2 million Jews live, where I live, is at record levels. I’m a Zionist. I believe in a Jewish Homeland. I believe in the right of Israel to exist. I support whomever I choose to support, whether they’re supposed allies of the U.S., or its enemies…because our American history shows that enemies and allies change with the seasons and the years.
Ukraine hasn’t been a historical ally of the United States…but rather a staging ground for regime change from a pro-Russian government to a pro-Western one. Zelensky wasn’t “duly elected” because Ukraine hasn’t been a real democracy since its inception. Zelensky is a thug, just like every Eastern European leader…feel free to challenge me on that opinion. He’s an autocrat who’s crushed his opposition party and controls all Ukrainian media. He’s embezzled BILLIONS of dollars from his allies, and his greed is insatiable. There are Jews who worked with the Nazis during WWII, and Zelensky is of that ilk, working hand-in-hand with the neo-Nazis of Ukraine. Israel wants nothing to do with Zelensky…so, that’s about all you need to know about his Jewishness.
Back when The New York Times was still a legitimate news source, they wrote about the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine which started in 2014, when the U.S. orchestrated a change of government coup without the blessings of the European Union. Between then and early 2022, over 14,000 people who identify as “Russian ethnics” were murdered by the Ukrainian government. Over the course of eight years, the Ukrainian puppet government fought Russian-backed separatists for control over much of the two heavily industrialized regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, also known as Donbas. The United States, my country, has bloody hands as the puppeteer of this anti-Russian proxy war. I could care less who wins the war in Ukraine…as it’s of no concern to the average American. Our Military Industrial Complex supports wars all over the planet as a means to sell and deplete weaponry. Most Americans have no idea where Yemen is, nor do they know that we’ve caused mass death and misery in that country at the behest of Saudi Arabia, our key supplier of foreign crude oil. We, the United States, are also complicit in murdering of countless Syrians, Iraqis, and Afghanis…and on and on. All Americans should recall the advice of President Eisenhower when he left office: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist”. Questioning your government, vehemently disagreeing with your government, doesn’t make you a bad citizen when you live in a democracy.

Last edited 2 years ago by Abe Stamm
Abe Stamm
Abe Stamm
2 years ago
Reply to  david siegel

I don’t know what you mean by “out-Jew” you? The Holocaust body count of my family, from Poland,Ukraine and Lithuania was extreme, so extreme that I no longer have any European relatives. When I was a child, and was shown still photos and movie footage shot at the extermination camps when they were liberated after the war, it was taught to me by my Jewish elders, including the Holocaust survivors who sat in the congregation of my synagogue, that we will “NEVER FORGET!”. There’s no moving on. The level of antisemitic hate crimes being perpetrated in the New York-metropolitan area, where over 2 million Jews live, where I live, is at record levels. I’m a Zionist. I believe in a Jewish Homeland. I believe in the right of Israel to exist. I support whomever I choose to support, whether they’re supposed allies of the U.S., or its enemies…because our American history shows that enemies and allies change with the seasons and the years.
Ukraine hasn’t been a historical ally of the United States…but rather a staging ground for regime change from a pro-Russian government to a pro-Western one. Zelensky wasn’t “duly elected” because Ukraine hasn’t been a real democracy since its inception. Zelensky is a thug, just like every Eastern European leader…feel free to challenge me on that opinion. He’s an autocrat who’s crushed his opposition party and controls all Ukrainian media. He’s embezzled BILLIONS of dollars from his allies, and his greed is insatiable. There are Jews who worked with the Nazis during WWII, and Zelensky is of that ilk, working hand-in-hand with the neo-Nazis of Ukraine. Israel wants nothing to do with Zelensky…so, that’s about all you need to know about his Jewishness.
Back when The New York Times was still a legitimate news source, they wrote about the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine which started in 2014, when the U.S. orchestrated a change of government coup without the blessings of the European Union. Between then and early 2022, over 14,000 people who identify as “Russian ethnics” were murdered by the Ukrainian government. Over the course of eight years, the Ukrainian puppet government fought Russian-backed separatists for control over much of the two heavily industrialized regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, also known as Donbas. The United States, my country, has bloody hands as the puppeteer of this anti-Russian proxy war. I could care less who wins the war in Ukraine…as it’s of no concern to the average American. Our Military Industrial Complex supports wars all over the planet as a means to sell and deplete weaponry. Most Americans have no idea where Yemen is, nor do they know that we’ve caused mass death and misery in that country at the behest of Saudi Arabia, our key supplier of foreign crude oil. We, the United States, are also complicit in murdering of countless Syrians, Iraqis, and Afghanis…and on and on. All Americans should recall the advice of President Eisenhower when he left office: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist”. Questioning your government, vehemently disagreeing with your government, doesn’t make you a bad citizen when you live in a democracy.

Last edited 2 years ago by Abe Stamm
david siegel
david siegel
2 years ago
Reply to  Abe Stamm

The Holocaust was a very long time ago now, Abe. You can’t “out-jew” me on the issues. Half my family was exterminated. But it’s time to move on. Hoping that Russia wins its war in Ukraine because of the Holocaust would be like favoring North Korea if it decided to attack Germany. We live in a different world now. We should support our current allies and not formulate foreign policy on the basis of settling old scores. Putin is an autocratic thug. Zelensky is the duly elected Jewish leader of a democracy. And you can’t figure out which side to support?

Abe Stamm
Abe Stamm
2 years ago

The United States has always been a land of opportunity for LEGAL immigrants, though an absolute nightmare for its native peoples. The LEGAL process of applying for American citizenship is the historical gateway…not the illegal “invasion” that’s occurring at the southern border today, whereby anybody from anywhere, unvetted, can walk into the country and seek sanctuary, taxpayer provided public assistance, and potential permanent U.S. citizenship.
There’s currently a backlog of 9 MILLION people who have LEGALLY applied for family and employment resident visas, or “green cards”. There’s a Diversity Visa Green Card Lottery system: a yearly, computer-generated, random opportunity for 55,000 potential immigrants to LEGALLY “win” their permanent residency status…limited to people from countries that don’t already already have large immigration representation, like Mexico…and yes, the United Kingdom, though we’ll let folk from Northern Ireland enter the lottery.
I have a friend, a Mexican immigrant, who LEGALLY applied for 20 consecutive years for permanent U.S. residency, which required hiring a lawyer each year to plead his case in immigration court, before he finally received his green card last year. During that time he LEGALLY worked as a laborer, a carpenter’s assistance, honing his skills, to the point where he’s now a successful general contractor. He visited Mexico for the first time in two decades as a LEGAL resident of the United States…which allowed him the LEGAL right to return back across the border after reuniting with his relatives.
My ancestors LEGALLY immigrated to the United States between the 1880’s and 1890’s, fleeing persecution from the long forgotten antisemitic events, called “pogroms”, which were targeted at Jews living within The Russian Empire. As an aside, over 100,000 Jews were murdered in series of pogroms between 1918-1921 in what is now Ukraine. During the Holocaust, 1.5 million Jews were exterminated within Ukraine, 25% of the European total, a fact conveniently ignored by the pro-Ukraine media who extoll the righteousness of the Ukrainian people warring against their forever-evil Russian invader.

Steve Futterman
Steve Futterman
2 years ago

Thank you Batya but Joe’s handlers will have none of it. Those of us that literally live within walking distance of the border get it, but most never will. We experience the chaos and fallout from Joes open border policies, but America remains confused. It is pure fantasy to believe that asylum seekers will return for their court hearings. I know this, because they tell me. They know the game. Once you’re in, you’re in. What does move the conversation is Greg Abbotts busing migrants to the welcoming arms of sanctuary cities. Watching mayor Adams whine is pure bliss but most enjoyable was the Martha’s Vinyards meltdown over 50 migrants. How pathetic considering El Paso received 50k alone in the month of October. Cartels run safe house just north of me on American soil, in American cities and yet Joe insists “the border is secure”. For now, Greg Abbotts approach is the only way to send a wakeup call to Jerry Nadler and all the self-flagellating white liberals on New Yorks upper westside that YA BASTA!