Some Senate Democrats who urged the Trump administration to reverse Title 42 in 2020 are expressing concern over the end of the pandemic-era policy, with others backing a new proposal to stem the flow of migrants illegally crossing the southern border.
“We write to urge you to reverse the litany of policies you have implemented that have effectively dismantled our nation’s asylum system,” 34 liberal lawmakers wrote in a June 19, 2020, letter to President Donald Trump and his agency heads tasked with immigration enforcement.
Those policies included the administration’s Remain in Mexico policy forcing asylum seekers to await their court date south of the US border, as well as the end of the March 2020 asylum ban imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The ban, known as Title 42, expired at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, with an estimated 60,000 migrants waiting to cross into the US.
“As lawmakers, we are troubled by the blatant disregard for Congress’ explicit directions for how the federal government should process and adjudicate the cases of asylum seekers,” the senators said, noting how “more than 20,000, including more than 900 children, have been expelled under the CDC order.”
The letter’s signers included at least one Democrat — Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio — who recently signed onto a bill sponsored by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) that would effectively extend Title 42 for another two years.
“We need two more years to get this right,” Brown, who is up for re-election next year, told Politico of his decision to co-sponsor the Sinema-Tillis bill.
In an interview with Cleveland.com earlier this month, Brown applauded President Biden’s recent decision to authorize a troop deployment of 1,500 active-duty service members to the border and said the US should keep Title 42 in place.
“We need more resources at the border,” he said. “That means everything from military people at the border, police at the border, inspectors at the border, mental health professionals at the border to deal with this situation. It’s troubling. And as I said, I don’t think presidents of either party have really stepped up on this.”
Brown’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Biden conceded earlier this week that with the policy’s end — and the resulting influx of migrants — the southern border was “going to be chaotic for a while.”
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), who sits on the chamber’s Homeland Security Committee, and fellow Silver State Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto also signed the June 2020 letter. On Wednesday, however, the two wrote another letter to the Biden administration expressing “strong concerns that the federal government is still insufficiently prepared for the reality that Title 42 is coming to an end.”
Rosen and Cortez Masto’s offices also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rosen and Brown both voted for an amendment introduced by Sinema last December that would have appropriated more funds for border security, along with seven of their Democratic colleagues.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who was serving as the junior senator from California at the time and has since become Biden’s so-called “border czar,” was among the signatories to the 2020 letter, as was current Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). The two men have since said they are collaborating on their own bill to address the end of Title 42.
Other signatories included Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tom Udall (D-NM), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jack Reed (D-RI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).
Of those 28 lawmakers, 27 are still in the Senate. Leahy retired earlier this year, and Udall moved on to become US Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa in 2021.23
Fifteen current senators, including Schumer, also signed onto a February 2022 letter led by Booker that demanded the Biden administration repeal Title 42.