Cuellar follows fellow Democratic Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Greg Stanton of Arizona, Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, and Tom O’Halleran of Arizona in claiming the Biden administration is not ready for the large increase of border crossings expected when Title 42 expulsions end on May 23.
“Title 42 should not be lifted,” Cuellar told Fox News Digital in an interview during which he revealed that he signed onto the legislation, which was introduced earlier.
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He said if Democrats “don’t stand up and do the right thing, they’re going to be hit hard by the Republicans” during the upcoming midterm elections.
“But some of us are standing up and saying this is the right thing to do for the border,” Cuellar said of keeping Title 42 in place. “We all believe in immigration reform, but we don’t want chaos at the border. We want law and order at the border.”
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The House legislation is similar to the bipartisan Senate legislation introduced this week with the support of five Democrats: Sens. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., Jon Tester, D-Mont., Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.
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The legislation would extend Title 42 by an extra 60 days and would require within 30 days for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to submit a plan to Congress on how they will address the expected surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
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The Title 42 order was launched in March 2020 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has been used by both the Trump and Biden Administrations to quickly expel a majority of migrants at the border.
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The CDC announced last week that it will abolish the order on May 23, immediately prompting concern from both sides of the aisle, including within the Biden administration, that it will lead to a surge in migration -- on top of the already large numbers being encountered by Border Patrol each day.
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“The Biden Administration is not currently prepared for a large increase in border crossings,” Golden said. “Ending these Title 42 authorities without a plan in place to manage the resulting influx of migrants is irresponsible and could create crisis conditions that would be dangerous for both migrants coming to America and Americans themselves.”