Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri Sue Biden for Ending Title 42 Border Control

by JOHN BINDER 4 Apr 2022

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt have filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s administration for plans to end the Title 42 border control that has helped stem waves of illegal immigration since 2020.

Late last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that on May 23 the Biden administration would end Title 42 — a broad public health authority that allows federal immigration officials to quickly return border crossers and illegal aliens to their native countries.

Former President Trump invoked Title 42 in 2020, the first time in American history that the order was used at the border to ensure that American citizens were protected from viral infections, diseases, and illnesses that border crossers and illegal aliens could be carrying, specifically the Chinese coronavirus.

Biden officials admit that lifting Title 42 is likely to bring a massive influx of border crossers and illegal aliens to the border, with potentially 500,000 arriving at the border every month — a more than doubling of current illegal immigration levels.

According to the lawsuit, Biden’s ending Title 42 knowingly passes on burdensome illegal immigration costs to the states and violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

The lawsuit claims:

Defendants’ unlawful termination of the Title 42 policy will induce a significant increase of illegal immigration into the United States, with many migrants asserting non-meritorious asylum claims
.

Indeed, press reports state that Defendants themselves predict that the Termination Order will create an unprecedented surge at the border that will overwhelm Defendants’ capacity to enforce immigration laws at the border — they predict that the daily number of aliens unlawfully trying to enter the United States will nearly triple. [Emphasis added]

White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield admitted on the record that the Termination Order will cause “an influx of people to the border.” This predicted influx will injure the Plaintiff States in multiple ways, including through increased expenditures on health care, education, and law enforcement, as well as through increased numbers of crimes. [Emphasis added]

Defendants’ unlawful termination of the Title 42 policy creates incentives to cross the border illegally by reducing the cost of being apprehended. Just as with the Migrant Protection Protocols, by removing the carrot of admission into the United States, reduced the number of false asylum claimants by requiring potential asylees to remain in Mexico, the Defendants, by removing the stick of mandatory detention, increase the number of illegal entries into the United States by erasing the possibility that an apprehension will result in anything other than the freedom to remain in the United States. [Emphasis added]

Brnovich said Biden’s ending Title 42 is “a ridiculously poor decision with a bad intention for border states and American communities across the country,” while Schmitt called the border control “a crucial tool for controlling the influx of illegal aliens at our southern border.”

“Presidential politics are killing public safety,” Landry said in a statement. “Joe Biden needs to stop trying to be woke and start protecting the homeland.”

Brnovich notes in the lawsuit that Arizona, a border state, and its taxpayers are likely to endure costs as a result of record illegal immigration levels that are expected to occur due to Biden’s ending Title 42.

“Arizona is required to expend its scarce resources when DHS acts unlawfully to induce increased illegal immigration. This includes resources expended by Arizona’s law enforcement community,” the lawsuit states:

Arizona bears substantial costs of incarcerating unauthorized aliens, which amounts to tens of millions of dollars each year
, as reflected by Arizona’s State Criminal Assistance Program (SCAAP) requests, the great majority of which are not reimbursed by the federal government. [Emphasis added]

The states ask the court to vacate Biden’s order to terminate Title 42 and permanently enjoin the administration from enforcing the termination order.

The case is Arizona v. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 6:22-cv-885 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri Sue Biden for Ending Title 42 Border Control (breitbart.com)