Turn migrants away at border, NC’s Tillis says in last-minute push before deadline

Sen. Thom Tillis is pushing this week to reinstate an expiring and controversial immigration policy that turns migrants away at the border.

Last month, Biden announced that on May 11 he would end the country’s public health emergency tied to COVID-19. That effectively concludes a myriad of policies put in place to keep the public safe from the deadly virus, including Title 42. Begun in March 2020 under the Trump administration, Title 42 gave border agents the ability to quickly turn away people at the border who posed a public health risk. The Biden administration later expanded the policy.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a news conference Wednesday that smugglers on the border have been misreporting to people that at 11:59 p.m. on May 11, the southern border would be open for people to cross. That has led to to a surge of migrants flocking to the border and entering the United States. The Biden administration is moving resources, including troops, south to help border agents deal with the increase.

Tillis criticized Biden last week, saying that the president failed to secure the border and that the situation would only get worse. He and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an independent from Arizona, which borders Mexico, proposed a bill that would put in place all the provisions of Title 42, without tying it to a public health emergency.

“It’s clear that Congress must immediately step in, and the bipartisan bill I’m introducing with Senator Sinema will help prevent the catastrophic fallout at the border we’ll soon see if no action is taken,” Tillis said in the news release.

Outside the Senate chamber Wednesday morning, Tillis told McClatchy he’s “very concerned.”

“But I’m also concerned about every single policy Biden has taken down, which has caused this crisis,” Tillis said. “This is just going to be a multiplier, but he really needs to rethink a lot of the authority he has that he has taken off the table.”

Sinema and Tillis’ work on bill

Sinema and Tillis first proposed this legislation last year but weren’t able to get a bill to the floor before a newly elected Congress took over.

At the time, Tillis told McClatchy that the Border Patrol Council, a labor union representing border patrol agents and their support staff, had told Congress that they would lose control of the border if lawmakers failed to address the consequences of Title 42.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported having 2.38 million land border encounters at the southern border in the 2022 fiscal year, up from 1.73 million the year before.

In December, more than 252,000 migrants had southwest land border encounters, which fell to 156,787 before increasing again in March to 191,899. The Wall Street Journal reported that the decrease is typical due to the cold weather and holiday season.

Sinema said that the surge has led to her constituents being forced to manage a crisis they didn’t create.

“Our legislation gives the administration time to actually implement a realistic workable plan that will secure our border, protect Arizona communities on the front-lines of this crisis, and ensure migrants are treated fairly and humanely,” Sinema said in a news release.

Biden administration response

Mayorkas praised Biden Wednesday afternoon, saying changes the president made to immigration policies have led to a better pathway for people from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Honduras to enter the country legally and reduced border encounters from people of these countries by 90% between December and March.

The Homeland Security secretary placed the blame on the border crisis directly at the feet of members of Congress.

“I can not overemphasize that our current situation is (the) outcome of Congress leaving a broken, outdated immigration system in place for over two decades despite unanimous agreement that we desperately need legislative reform,” Mayorkas said. “It is also the result of Congress not (providing) us with the resources we need and requested.”

Among those requests, Mayorkas listed $4 billion for personnel, facilities and transportation.

Mayorkas used his news conference to deliver a message that the southern border is not open, and stronger consequences will come to those trying to cross into the U.S. illegally.

Immigration bill support

Meanwhile, Tillis and Sinema are working to find bipartisan support to get their bill through the Senate and into the House.

The bill offers the Biden administration a two-year expulsion authority for migrants at the border.

In a joint statement Tillis and Sinema said that the bill provides protections for migrants whose return to their own countries would pose a threat to their life or freedom or expose them to torture. It also allows for a case-by-case exemption for migrants with acute medical needs.

Tillis wasn’t overconfident about his bill passing right away.

“Not before (the policy) expires at midnight,” Tillis said, adding that he expects at least three weeks before he can get it through Congress.

“But I do think we’re going to see an immediate influx, and I think that could put pressure on the administration,” Tillis said.

Democrats control the Senate, and Biden could veto any legislation he opposes.

Tillis is working to get more bipartisan support to cosponsor the bill. Sens. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, and John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, have signed on.

“We don’t want this to be a Republican-only initiative, and so we’re having the discussions here and we’re having discussions with the House to see if they can originate one and send it our way,” Tillis said.

House concerns

House members are set this week to vote on a bill to secure the southern border, which includes building a wall proposed by former President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, North Carolina’s Republicans sent a letter Tuesday to Mayorkas and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Troy Miller demanding answers about an increase in encounters with suspected terrorists at the southern border and whether any of those potential terrorists have been brought to North Carolina.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican from Lincoln County, led the delegation in writing the letter. His spokesman Will Bowen said that there’s no reports that terrorists have been sent to North Carolina at this time.

“While the Congressman is unaware of any such reported incidents at this time, the Congressman is seeking this information due to the lack of transparency around this issue,” Bowen said. “Tenth District law enforcement should have answers to the questions raised in his letter so they can best protect our community.”

McHenry, a Republican from Lincoln County, called the increase in suspected terrorist encounters alarming and said it highlights the dangers of the “Biden Administration’s open border policy.”

“The chaos at our southern border has created a humanitarian crisis, fueled the opioid epidemic, and allowed entry to those that wish us harm,” McHenry said.

The North Carolina Republicans asked Miller and Mayorkas to account for the increase and say what they proposed to do to reverse the trend, what the process was for tracking individuals who were released, and what credible threats might have been uncovered about groups like ISIS looking to use gaps at the southern border to smuggle in terrorists.

“We need to know why this information is hidden from public view and what is happening to these suspects after they are apprehended,” McHenry said. “Our porous border is putting Americans at risk and they deserve to know the truth.”