The number of immigrants who were arrested after illegally crossing the southern border fell to 156,000 in January, the third-lowest total since President Joe Biden took office. This number remains higher than in any month during President Donald Trump’s tenure and is 80,000 arrests higher than Trump’s last month in office.
But while illegal border crossings always fall in January, the decline from the record-high December numbers was helped by Biden’s increased use of Title 42 to deny illegal immigrants entry on health grounds.
BIDENFLATION IS NOT GOING AWAY
In December, when a record-high 251,000 illegal immigrants were arrested after crossing the border, Biden denied entry to just 1 in 5 of them by invoking Title 42 authority. Most of the rest were granted access to the United States.
In January, however, Biden upped his use of Title 42 to deny entry to more than 2 out of every 5 of those arrested. Unsurprisingly to everyone but libertarians and open-border activists, the January border numbers prove that enforcement works. The more you deny illegal immigrants entry, the fewer who will attempt to do so. It’s pretty simple.
Unfortunately, Biden is not planning to ramp up deterrence, but to do the opposite. The administration’s lawyers informed the Supreme Court that they intend to end the use of Title 42 when Biden ends the COVID-19 pandemic emergency in May.
What Biden plans to do to deter immigrants from illegal crossings is unclear. In the same legal brief to the Supreme Court, the DOJ also said immigrants who “fail to seek protection in a country through which they traveled on their way to the U.S.” could be placed in expedited removal proceedings.
There are two problems with this. First, Biden already has the authority to place illegal border-crossers in expedited removal proceedings. He does not need to issue a new regulation to give the Department of Homeland Security that power.
More importantly, expedited removal proceedings do nothing to prevent illegal immigrants from making meritless claims that they fear persecution, which is their ticket to gain release into the country. Immigrants will continue to be free to cross the border, get arrested, assert asylum as a defense against deportation, and then be released into the U.S. to go wherever they want.
Biden doesn’t need Title 42 or new regulations to prevent the release of illegal immigrants into the U.S. Section 212(f) of Title 8 gives him the authority to “suspend the entry of all aliens” if he decides it would be “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
All Biden needs is the political will to use this tool, and he can end the border crisis he created tomorrow.