Timing couldn’t be worse for ending Title 42

Title 42, the Trump-era public health policy that allows for the quick deportation of asylum seekers and other migrants, is set to expire next week.

The Biden administration has a plan to deal with the expected surge of migrants at our southern border.

A bad one.

Tae Johnson, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told a House committee Tuesday that the agency needs fewer detention beds for immigrants who face deportation, according to RollCall.

The administration asked Congress to provide funding for just 25,000 detention beds — down from the current level of 34,000 — and requested an $87 million increase in funding for programs allowing for alternatives to detention.

These alternatives allow ICE to monitor immigrants who are not physically in custody through ankle monitors or other means,.

The Department of Homeland Security forecasts a spike in arrivals after Title 42 ends, potentially as many as 18,000 per day.

“Once Title 42 goes away, we’re going to have an increased number of these people coming across, and instead of detaining them with those extra beds that you have, you’re cutting that and then going to be releasing those people into our country,” Iowa Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson said. “That’s what Americans are concerned about right now.”

It’s not just that ICE will be overburdened with the expected crush of migrants and tasked with speedy determination of those who pose a threat and those who do not, it’s what happens after those who make the cut are released, with or without ankle monitors.

Migrants may be seeking a better life, but they would be entering a country hammered by inflation and dealing with a rise in COVID cases.

The timing couldn’t be worse.

As inflation chips away at Americans’ buying power at the supermarket, food banks are feeling the heat. As CNN reported, about 65% of the 200 food banks in the Feeding America network reported seeing a greater demand for food assistance in March compared with the previous month.

The share of food banks experiencing increased demand has more than doubled since December.

How does the Biden administration foresee food security for immigrants as this source of assistance is already under strain?

And how will states accommodate the influx as social service agencies wage their own battles with inflation and decreased spending power?

Title 42 was enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in a bid to limit the spread of the virus. Right now, the virus is picking up the pace, with daily reports of new cases increasing threefold since the start of April, as the New York Times reported.

Cases are rising in nearly every U.S. state, but the Northeast and Midwest have been especially hard hit. In much of those two regions, daily case reports are higher today than they were at the peak of last summer’s Delta surge.

Ending a COVID-era policy designed to tamp down on transmissions when cases are rising is an enormous mistake, one we could be paying for months to come. And funding to assist immigrants with food or housing isn’t going to appear just because the need is there.

It’s not too late to extend Title 42. It’s the best move for America and the immigrants who want to make this their home.