Exclusive–Hauman: Vulnerable Democrats Are Pretending to Care About the Border, Don’t Fall for It

Panicked Democrats are suddenly coming out of the woodwork urging the Biden administration to have a plan in place before Title 42 officially ends on May 23.

But what, exactly, is their plan?

Are they advocating for actual policies and programs to deter illegal migration, or are they quietly trying to pave the way for massive expansions in the number, method, and ease by which migrants can come to and remain in the United States.

If you look closely at their quotes, press releases, and letters, one thing is clear: Their “plan” is to process every migrant in the impending wave smoothly and efficiently – asylum officers with rubber stamps await.

There are too many examples of “don’t end Title 42 until a plan is in place” to count.

Democratic retread Beto O’Rourke, who is running for governor of Texas, just knocked the Biden administration for failing to give border communities a plan on how they’ll process the wave of migrants once Tile 42 ends.

“It does not make sense to end this until there is a real plan and the capacity in place to handle those and address those that come over,” O’Rourke said in an interview with The Texas Tribune on Tuesday. “I have yet to hear a plan from the Biden administration to address the dynamic we will have on the border once Title 42 ends.”

Vulnerable New Hampshire Democrat Maggie Hassan recently told local news after visiting Texas and Arizona that the Biden administration “really needs to step up here, develop a plan and get more resources to the southern border.” Resources to do what, process migrants?

Shortly before the decision to end Title 42 was announced, Arizona’s Democratic senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly penned a letter urging the Biden administration to keep the policy in place until they develop a plan with the input of immigration lawyers and open borders NGOs.

“Different sectors and border communities will require different resources, so the plan must be developed in consultation with local government leaders and community organizations, including those providing services to migrants,” the letter reads. “Such groups in Arizona have not been consulted about Title 42 changes – until the administration does that type of consultation with local government leaders and nonprofits along the border, it is premature to consider changes to Title 42 authorities.”

Sinema then joined with a Republican colleague and introduced the Public Health and Border Security Act. Four other Senate Democrats co-sponsored the bill: Kelly (AZ), Hassan (NH), Joe Manchin (WV), and Jon Tester (MT). The bill would require all COVID-19 related national states of emergency to be lifted before Title 42 is officially terminated.

Yet the bill doesn’t actually put anything in place for when these states of emergency end. The Biden administration may lift them before the 2022 midterms in an effort to protect the political safety of Democrats facing brutal re-election prospects. “Declaring victory” over COVID-19 would then open our borders up again to these same concerns.

Without actual policies in place to stop frivolous and fraudulent asylum seekers – such as Trump-era agreements with the Northern Triangle countries, the full reimplementation of Migrant Protection Protocols (also known as “Remain in Mexico”), as well as vigorous enforcement of our immigration laws in the interior of the country – ending Title 42 later will be just as disastrous as ending Title 42 now.

Messaging bills like the Public Health and Border Security Act are akin to putting lipstick on a pig, and do nothing to protect our border once COVID-19 emergency declarations are no longer in place.

Even Democratic senators in safer seats have condemned the Biden administration’s ending of Title 42, including Mark Warner of Virginia, who said that he would be “very reluctant for the administration to end [Title 42] until they had a real plan in place.” Yet Warner himself has not expanded beyond his original comments – what plan is acceptable to Senator Warner?

I could go on and on.

The fact is this: No Democratic lawmakers have called on the administration to reinstate “Remain in Mexico” or safe-third-country agreements with the Northern Triangle countries. They haven’t urged the administration to backtrack on their radical asylum system overhaul. None of them have attacked the complete and utter dismantling of immigration enforcement in the interior.

In a sentence, none of them cared about what is happening at the border until it became a political liability. And even their solutions would facilitate – not prevent – an endless, unprecedented flow of illegal migrants under the guise of legality.

Wake up, people. Democrats don’t want to stop the impending wave of migrants who will cross the border illegally. They want them to remain in America – forever.

RJ Hauman is head of government relations and communications at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

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