Students in border states oppose Biden's push to end Title 42
The order has been used nearly 1.8 million times since its enactment in 2020, and the Department of Homeland Security estimates that, if it is overturned, up to 18,000 migrants could cross the border each day.
University students near the border are concerned the move could produce a variety of problems for Americans.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Biden Administration from ending enforcement of Title 42, a public health code the CDC invoked during the pandemic to turn away migrants at the southern border.
The order has been used nearly 1.8 million times since its enactment in 2020, and the Department of Homeland Security estimates that, if it is overturned, up to 18,000 migrants could cross the border each day.
Both Republican and Democratic congressmen have spoken out against rescinding Title 42. The Biden Administration, however, has signaled that it will move forward with the plan.
Campus Reform reached out to students in border states to get their stances on the immigration crisis.
”We shouldn’t risk the health and safety of our own citizens,” Jordan Eide, a junior at the University of California San Diego, told Campus Reform, referencing COVID-19.
”Our border communities would be even more overwhelmed,” he added.
Clay Robinson, a senior at Arizona State University, shared a similar perspective.
“[Title 42] was expected to end when the health emergency subsided. However, because the Biden administration continues to undermine border security at every turn, Title 42 has become one of the few tools left for our border patrol to uphold the rule of law, making it essential that it should remain in place”, Robinson told Campus Reform.
Meanwhile, Texas remains a focus of the Title 42 debate.
In May 2022 alone, the Customs and Border Protection sectors in Texas consisting of Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, Del Rio, and Big Bend, saw a combined 104,764 migrant encounters, nearly half of the 222,656 total encounters that month.
Dylan Newsom, a senior at Texas A&M University, said that the primary effects of lifting Title 42 “will most likely be an increased amount of strain on our infrastructure and resources, an increase in violent crime, increased flow of drugs, and illegal arms.”
University of Texas at Austin junior Jackson Paul believes the immigration crisis should be managed as an emergency without using a COVID-era policy.
”Obviously, the Biden administration should protect our border, and the sheer number of migrants is enough to be declared an emergency in its own right, but this is not a public health emergency, so the government shouldn’t use public health emergency-related rules,” Paul said.
Hernandez agreed that the situation for border communities is urgent.
“I think [border communities] will be flooded with more migrants, and that the already tenuous security situation will become worse,” he said. “As more and more people are forced to leave these communities, the situation will continue to deteriorate.”
