Sunday 22 May 2022 03:52 PM Even one-third of DEMS want Title 42 to stay as new poll reveals 55% of ... trends now
More than half of Americans want pandemic-era Title 42 to remain in place after the Biden administration's attempt to drop the migration policy was blocked by a federal judge on Friday.
The Politico-Harvard survey from the T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that 55 percent of Americans oppose ending the policy while 45 percent are in favor of getting rid of it.
Title 42, enacted under Donald Trump in March 2020, stopped 1.7 million illegal immigrants since the start of the pandemic.
Republicans say the public health rule has helped quell the southern border crisis while President Joe Biden's policies have failed to do so. But Democrats and immigration advocates claim use of the order to expel migrants seeking asylum is illegal.
In the survey taken May 6-9, 64 percent of Democrats said they want Title 42 to end while more than one-third at 36 percent oppose the end of the policy. Republicans had a much larger split with only 19 percent in favor of ending the policy and a whopping 81 percent insisting Title 42 must stay in place.
Forty-eight percent of Americans identifying as independent want to end the policy and 52 percent want to keep it.
The poll was taken two weeks before a federal judge in the Western District of Louisiana ruled on a temporary stay for Biden's end to Title 42 restrictions after a lawsuit was filed and signed on by two dozen Republican-led states.
Title 42, which is an immigration restriction power that falls under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was supposed to end on Monday, May 23, 2022 after the agency said it was no longer needed.
Republicans immediately argued that the health-related policy should stay in place – at least as long as there is still a declared public health emergency in the U.S. They also claim it is one of the only remaining protections that is stopping the southern border crisis from getting exponentially worse.
While Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has encountered more than 2.7 million migrants at the southern border, 1.7 million have been expelled under Title 42.
Fifty-five percent of Americans say they oppose President Joe Biden ending Title 42 with even 36% of Democrats agreeing and a whopping 81% of Republicans in favor of keeping the measure
Migrants expelled under Title 42 walk from the U.S. toward Mexico at the Paso del Norte International border bridge in Ciudad Juarez, Mexcio on Saturday
Title 42 is a migration restriction policy that allows for instant expulsion without hearing asylum claims during a public health emergency. Pictured: Migrants stand next to the border as a Border Patrol agent takes a head count in Eagle Pass, Texas on Saturday, May 21, 2022
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials made 234,088 stops on the Mexican border in April, a new high for the Biden administration and an overall 22-year high and a 5.8% increase from the 221,303 encounters in March
Humans Rights First found that of those expelled back to Mexico under the law, 10,200 of them – or 0.006 percent – have been kidnapped, raped, tortured or violently attacked.
The Biden administration said Friday it disagrees with the ruling by Louisiana federal Judge Robert Summerhays blocking them from ending Title 42. The Justice Department announced it will appeal the decision.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the authority to make decisions on public health policy nationally 'should rest with the CDC, not with a single district court.
Judge Summerhays, a Trump appointee, granted a preliminary injunction on the Biden administration's move to end the restriction in response to lawsuits from two dozen Republican states, led by Arizona, Louisiana and Missouri.
Summerhays previously said he would rule on the matter before Monday when the restriction was set to expire.
Judge Robert Summerhays of the Western District of Louisiana (pictured April 11, 2018) granted a preliminary injunction Friday on the Biden administration's move to end Title 42 following a lawsuit filed by two dozen Republican-led states
The states claim the CDC is violating the Administrative Procedures Act because they did not provide a notice-and-comment period for the plan to lift Title 42. The law also bars moves that are deemed 'arbitrary and capricious.'
The plaintiffs also claim the Biden administration failed to account for the added cost to the states – especially border states – of more migrants being allowed into the U.S.
Biden's team stressed in its arguments that the CDC has the authority to end Title 42 because it is a public health order, not an immigration order.
Jean-Pierre said the administration 'disagrees' with the ruling, and said the executive had the prerogative to end the program.
'The Administration disagrees with the court's ruling, and the Department of Justice has announced that it will appeal this decision. The authority to set public health policy nationally should rest with the Centers for Disease Control, not with a single district court,' she said.
'However, in compliance with the court's injunction, the Biden Administration will continue to enforce the CDC's 2020 Title 42 public health authority
