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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott expressed alarm Sunday about a surge in crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border if a key immigration policy, Title 42, is allowed to expire this week and called on courts to step in.
Abbott said that public health concerns should prompt courts to intervene and prevent the policy from expiring. Former President Donald Trump implemented Title 42 in early 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If the courts don’t intervene and put a halt to the removal of Title 42, it’s going to be total chaos,” Abbott told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “Whether it’s COVID or some other issue, when you have people coming 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.”
Last week, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Title 42 is still set to expire on Wednesday, Dec. 21. Abbott and other Republicans said that illegal border crossings are expected to increase after that.
A coalition of 19 Republican-leaning states was pushing to keep the asylum restrictions. Under the rule, illegal immigrants have been denied the ability to seek asylum under U.S. and international law 2.5 million times since March 2020 on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Immigration advocates had argued that the United States was abandoning its longstanding history and commitments to offer refuge to people around the world fleeing persecution, and sued to end the use of Title 42.
