Wisconsin congressman leads group of Republicans to push for Title 42 extension at US-Mexico Border

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - U.S. Customs and Border Protection anticipates an increase in border encounters following the end of the CDC’s Title 42 Public Health Order next month, but a group of Republicans is asking President Joe Biden to keep the order in place.

Earlier this month, Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) visited the Southwest border sectors in San Diego, California and Yuma, Arizona.

“The first night we were there we hung around the border for maybe 45 minutes. We saw two groups [of] 70-80 people coming across,” he said. “When you have this many people you have to do paperwork for everybody coming across.”

Grothman is leading a group of 53 Republicans who sent a letter to Biden asking him to reconsider ending the emergency public health order known as Title 42.

The order was put in place in March 2020 by former President Donald Trump in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It allowed the Border Patrol to quickly send migrants back to their countries without filing paperwork on the grounds of a communicable disease.

The group of Republicans cites health and drug trafficking concerns as well as overworked Border Patrol agents as reasons the order should stay in place, but the Biden Administration said it’s ending the order on May 23.

“I think it’s important to remember this is not an immigration authority,” said Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary. “It is a health authority that Congress gave the CDC authority to make a determination about, about whether it needs to stay in place or not.”

Some Democrats, including Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), believe Title 42 should stay in place.

“I think Title 42 should stay simply because we still have a pandemic here in the U.S.,” said Cuellar.

According to the CDC, new COVID cases have dropped from a 1.2 million high in January, but the latest data shows an uptick in certain areas across the country.

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