Biden should heed bipartisan plea on Title 42
On certain issues in Washington, compromise may well be impossible. But on others, the conventional narrative on social media and cable television — namely that the two parties are at impossible loggerheads — misconstrues the reality.
That confusion may be most clearly true now in the debate over what to do at the border. At a time when COVID cases are on the upsurge in half the nation’s states, a majority of the country, backed by a growing group of leaders in both parties on Capitol Hill, are all of one mind — they want Washington to keep the health-related restrictions in place. The question now is whether President Joe Biden, who promised to unite the country, will heed their demands.
The desire to keep the nation healthy has long had bipartisan support. Worried about the spread of disease as World War II neared an end — recall that the United States endured a horrific pandemic in the closing months of World War I — Congress passed in 1944, and President Franklin Roosevelt subsequently signed, the Public Health Service Act, establishing the federal government’s quarantine authority. The act codified “Title 42,” a provision of public health law granting the executive branch “the power to prohibit, in whole or in part, the introduction of persons and property” from any foreign country where “any communicable disease” may threaten domestic public health. Nothing partisan about that.
At issue today is whether President Biden will use that power, as he should. The Biden administration has set May 23 as the date when the Title 42 provision that President Donald Trump invoked two years ago, when COVID-19 first emerged as a threat to the nation’s public health, will be lifted. At a moment that the administration is pressing for Congress to appropriate more money to fight COVID, when new variants are emerging around the globe, it seems illogical to potentially expose the country to additional risk, understanding that the exact amount of risk is difficult to quantify. And yet here we are.
This is a case where White House officials would do well to re-read the president’s inaugural address — specifically the sections about uniting a divided country. According to a recent poll by Morning Consult and Politico, a majority of U.S. voters support keeping the protections at the border. But just as important, a group of 11 senators — five Democrats and six Republicans, including Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — have introduced legislation extending the Title 42 order by 60 days and requiring within 30 days a detailed plan to deal with the likely surge that will accompany the policy’s repeal. Moreover, a companion piece in the House, led in part by Reps. Jared Golden, DMaine, Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Don Bacon, R-Neb., is now gathering support. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, has signed onto it.
This bipartisan effort on Capitol Hill is particularly notable because time is of the essence. As recently as January, a Justice Department attorney stated that the initial decision to issue the policy was rooted in “scientific expertise.” The general consensus is that a reversal of Title 42 would be accompanied by an increase in migration on the southern border.
There were a little over a million total encounters between migrants and Border Patrol officers between fall 2019 and fall 2020, but demand to enter the U.S. is expected to grow. And that’s without Washington rescinding the COVIDspecific barriers to getting into the country.
On a purely rational basis, the White House should have no trouble deciding where to come down on this issue. The American people want to preserve the COVID protections at the border. Democrats and Republicans are working together in Congress to preserve these protections. And the many migrants already trying to enter the country, combined with the rising prevalence of cases, suggests that the present policy should remain in place. But a minority of ideologues who view any effort to control the border as an affront want the policy rescinded. The question is which constituency holds more sway in the Oval Office.
This, of course, points to a more pervasive problem in Washington: the grip special interests have over the nation’s leaders. Americans’ frustration with politics comes largely from the pervasive sense that the greater good is ignored in favor of loud voices on the fringes. Fortunately, a growing cadre of leaders on Capitol Hill — a group that includes both the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus and their allies in the Senate — are taking a stand for the public interest. But they cannot be expected to win this fight alone. To turn things around, the White House will need to embrace common sense. And the American people, seeing clearly who has their concerns top of mind, need to hold their elected leaders to account.