Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
The state of Arizona and the nation are not prepared for the end of Title 42, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) said Sunday as she continued to push for Congress to pass a bill, one that she co-authored with North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, that would kick the immigration can two years down the road.
Sinema and Tillis have proposed replacing Title 42, which granted immigration officials the ability to expel migrants as a means of controlling the spread of COVID-19, with a new law that would grant President Joe Biden temporary authority to expel people who attempt to enter the nation illegally.
“Arizona border communities, law enforcement agencies, non-profits, and families are being left to manage a crisis they did not create,” Sinema said in a statement. “Our legislation gives the Administration time to actually implement a realistic, workable plan that will secure our border, protect Arizona communities on the frontlines of this crisis, and ensure migrants are treated fairly and humanely.”
During a Sunday appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sinema warned that the proposed bill was not a solve-all, but rather “a band-aid. That bill is saying, hey, Title 42 goes away on Thursday, and everyone here in Arizona knows we are not prepared.”
Saturday, Tillis tweeted, “This is a crisis. Biden and [Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro] Mayorkas have failed to take control and have left our borders wide open. Congress needs to take up legislation I introduced with @SenatorSinema to take action and extend Title 42 authority to prevent catastrophic consequences at our borders”
This is a crisis. Biden and Mayorkas have failed to take control and have left our borders wide open. Congress needs to take up legislation I introduced with @SenatorSinema to take action and extend Title 42 authority to prevent catastrophic consequences at our borders. https://t.co/CFWtSQ40qS
— Senator Thom Tillis (@SenThomTillis) May 7, 2023
Sinema, who showed a willingness to buck the left even when she was a Democrat, minced no words when assigning blame on what she described as a pending catastrophe at the southern border.
“The Biden administration had two years to prepare for this and did not do so,” Sinema said during her CBS appearance.
And our state is going to bear the brunt and migrants will be in crisis as soon as next week. It will be a humanitarian crisis because we are not prepared. So the legislation we introduced … is about tiding this over, giving us some time and space for the Biden administration to do their job. And for us legislators to actually create a plan that can get through both the House and the Senate.
Title 42 is slated to end on May 11.