AUSTIN, Texas — Almost 80 lawmakers are pushing back against President Joe Biden's expansion of Title 42 at the border.
A bicameral coalition of lawmakers from across the country came together on Wednesday to collectively write and send a letter to President Biden expressing their concerns about the recent changes that have been made to the asylum policies at the border.
Among these lawmakers is U.S. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), who co-led the authoring of the letter with U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.).
The first concern detailed in the letter was the expansion of Title 42, a policy that allows the U.S. to turn away anyone seeking entrance during a public health crisis.
"Last year, we welcomed your administration’s announcement that it would move to end Title 42, and we continue to support your efforts in the courts to ensure a timely end to the policy," the letter states in part. "We are therefore distressed by the deeply inconsistent choice to expand restrictions on asylum seekers after your administration determined it was no longer necessary for public health. Title 42 circumvents domestic law and international law."
Since 2020, more than two million asylum-seekers have been turned away at the U.S. border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
Also in the letter, the lawmakers focused on how a proposed policy would force anyone seeking asylum in the U.S. to apply for it in their country of origin instead of being in the U.S. and applying after.
"We are further concerned by the administration's announcement that it will be issuing a proposed rulemaking in the coming days that would require asylum seekers to first apply for asylum in a transit country instead of allowing them to seek their legal right to asylum at our southern border. This, in effect, is a transit ban," the letter states." The courts rightly rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to categorically end asylum when he similarly required asylum seekers to seek asylum in transit countries."
Casar co-led a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday discussing the details of the letter and the effect expanding Title 42 would have on the country.
“The expansion of Title 42 and the transit ban will not solve this humanitarian crisis,” Casar said. “People fleeing for their lives to this country need safe and legal pathways to asylum. Right-wing officials will continue to attack the Biden administration regardless of public policy at the border, so we should do the right thing regardless of their fear mongering.”
Despite the pushback within the letter, the lawmakers stated their support for the expansion of further legal pathways that have been put in place for those in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela – but they did add a caveat that the "polices cannot displace existing asylum laws."
"The parole policy’s requirements for passports, financial support in the United States, and the financial resources to travel by air to the United States means that the most vulnerable in those nations will not be able to take advantage of those programs. When Congress established the right to asylum, it did so without such requirements on where people may have previously traveled through or other pathways available," the letter states. "It is, in fact, necessary that asylum must be maintained and strengthened to ensure that safety is within reach, particularly for the most vulnerable."
Read the full letter the lawmakers sent to President Biden.