Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott expressed his concern over the looming end to the current Title 42 border policy while speaking Sunday with “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
“If the courts do not intervene and put a halt to the removal of Title 42, it’s gonna be total chaos,” Abbott told Raddatz.
EXCLUSIVE: With the expected end of Title 42 just days away @MarthaRaddatz heads to the southern border to ask @GovAbbott how Texas will handle the dramatic increase of migrants entering the U.S. @ThisWeekABChttps://t.co/H7mllZZFFQ pic.twitter.com/BA4tQPcZfJ
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) December 17, 2022
Title 42 is a reference to a clause of the 1944 Public Health Services Law that permits the U.S. Government to curb immigration during public health emergencies, ABC News reported. Former President Donald Trump leaned on Title 42 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to quickly dispel migrants crossing the southern border without giving them a chance to apply for asylum, something that many Democrats have criticized, the outlet stated.
“The legal issue at hand [with the use of Title 42] is that there’s nothing in the law that allows the government to expel [migrants] without any due process,” Olga Byrne, the immigration director at the International Rescue Committee told ABC News.
Abbott argued otherwise stating, “Whether it’s COVID or some other issue, when you have people coming in from across the globe, without knowing at all what their health status is, that almost by definition is a public health risk. There’s every reason to keep that in place,” he told Raddatz.
A federal appeals court denied Republican efforts to keep Title 42 in place Friday – a move that if not halted by the United States Supreme Court would allow the Biden administration to lift all pandemic-related restrictions starting Wednesday, ABC News stated.
Already the border is seeing a surge of migrants waiting for the end of Title 42. Just last weekend, Border Patrol agents in El Paso stopped 2,460 migrants a day on average, ABC News reported.
When discussing the possible chaos Abbott described, El Paso Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino told ABC News, “It’s already here.” (RELATED: ‘People Will Die’: Dem Rep Sounds The Alarm As Wave Of Migrants Prepares To Cross Border)
“Look at the vast numbers increased in the past weeks; especially the last few days. Those numbers are unsustainable and that’s with Title 42 in place. So, we can only imagine what will happen when it’s lifted,” he said.
Republican states led in part by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich will be filing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court Monday to keep Title 42 in effect, ABC News reported.