Title 42 ending: Manchin bashes Biden for border chaos, praises GOP 'leadership'

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) bashed President Joe Biden for his handling of the border and praised House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) attempt to change policy and regain control of the crisis.

Manchin spoke out in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner Thursday and depicted the Biden administration's two years of planning for this day as a failure that will be fully realized in the coming days.

We are one day from the end of Title 42 and still the Biden Administration has no viable solution to prevent an unmanageable surge of migrants at our southern border," Manchin said.

"There are multiple commonsense solutions to this crisis, including my bipartisan bill that would give the Administration a two-year temporary expulsion authority for migrants attempting to illegally enter the U.S. without inspection or proper documentation," Manchin continued. "While I do not support every provision, Republicans in the House of Representatives are at least working on a border security bill to fill the leadership vacuum created by this Administration. Our country cannot maintain our superpower status if we cannot control our own border.”

With only hours until Title 42 ends and record-high flows of immigrants could surge over the southern border, Manchin called for a bipartisan solution that he introduced last week alongside Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and John Cornyn (R-TX).

The bill would resemble protocols of Title 42, which was implemented in March 2020 to avoid filling Border Patrol stations with immigrants in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Under Title 42, Border Patrol was able to immediately send back illegal immigrants, and people were not allowed to request asylum at the ports of entry.

The bipartisan bill would extend a Title 42-like expulsion policy for the next two years until a better long-term solution can be found.

Last week, House Republicans debuted a 213-page border security and immigration bill that GOP leadership insisted would "end the crisis and restore sanity" if enacted.

The House is expected to vote on the bill Thursday but faces an uphill battle getting it through the Senate despite having encouragement from Manchin, who has defected from the Democratic Party on various issues.

The Secure the Border Act of 2023 is comprised of approximately 20 bills that the Republican-led Homeland Security, Judiciary, and Foreign Affairs committees passed in April. Many would reinstate Trump-era policies, including building the physical wall, requiring asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico through legal proceedings, and not allowing immigrants to make asylum claims in the first place if they had chosen not to do so after passing through other countries.

Despite the concern from mostly Republicans over the up to 18,000 immigrants that agents could encounter daily come Thursday night when the policy expires, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said on Wednesday that it was using Title 42 in less than one-in-five illegal immigrant apprehensions.

The change coming this evening will not make a huge impact on operations because agents have already largely transitioned to taking immigrants into custody rather than expelling them, according to Ortiz.

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