Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement regarding the documents put forward and passed off yesterday by Biden Administration officials as a ‘plan’ to handle the termination of Title 42 authorities at the southern border.
“Unfortunately, the document put forward by Secretary Mayorkas yesterday afternoon doesn’t represent a plan to effectively deal with the situation at the border after Title 42 is terminated. In short, this is a document largely focused on facilitating the entry, processing and release of illegal immigrants into the United States after they arrive at the southern border. It’s not a document with any new substantive ideas or policies to actually stop and deter the record flow of illegal immigration that, by the Administration’s own admission, will get even worse after Title 42 is rescinded.
“To the extent the document attempts to address efforts to deter illegal immigration, it largely references the same broad talking points that the Administration has long used to describe its supposed policies to address illegal immigration—policies that have been completely ineffective. It’s also not credible for an Administration that just recently submitted a budget proposal calling for a drastic reduction in immigration detention bed space, has consistently acted to undermine immigration enforcement across the board, and has released hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into the United States via its catch-and-release policies to assert that it is strictly enforcing immigration laws at the southern border.
“Finally, the document also asserts that the Biden Administration is the victim of a ‘broken and dismantled’ immigration system. To the extent the Biden Administration is the victim of a ‘broken and dismantled’ immigration system, it’s become worse because this Administration is responsible for further breaking and dismantling it.
“As I said when Secretary Mayorkas appeared before the Judiciary Committee last November, when you terminate physical barrier construction at the southern border, severely limit the ability of ICE to deport illegal immigrants, terminate the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, roll back asylum cooperative agreements and openly support sanctuary city policies, then the Administration shouldn’t be surprised when there are record-shattering surges of illegal immigration to the southern border. The Biden Administration’s termination of Title 42 is just the latest in a long line of irresponsible decisions that have led to more illegal immigrants being encountered at the southern border during the first 14 months of this Administration than in the last three years of the Trump Administration combined.
“By this Administration’s own admission, the termination of Title 42 will make the crisis it’s already created even worse. Nothing in the document submitted by Secretary Mayorkas will change that unfortunate reality.”
