BREAKING: Biden’s Sellout Will Lead to Chaos, Suffering, and Death at U.S.-Mexico Border

For Immediate Release: December 12, 2023

EL PASO, TEXAS – Following reports that the Biden administration is considering reviving Title 42 and expanding immigration detention and deportation, Marisa Limón Garza, Executive Director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and New Mexico, said:

“It is shameful that President Biden is putting the lives of children, families and vulnerable people in danger while using aid for Ukraine as an excuse. Bringing back Title 42 and keeping people from accessing safety and due process is not a solution; doing so will only revive the chaotic and unsafe circumstances at the border that haunted the Biden administration before. Title 42 didn’t stop people from coming then and it won’t now. We cannot go backwards when it comes to building an orderly and humane border.

“Expanding immigration detention and locking up immigrants seeking safety and prosperity is not a solution. Doing this will only see the federal government go out of its way to cage hundreds of thousands of men, women, children, and families because they see the U.S. as a place of hope and opportunity. We cannot go backwards on respecting human dignity.

“Doubling down on immigration enforcement across the U.S. by expanding expedited removal is not a solution. Doing so will drive immigrants into the shadows afraid to work, go to school, seek medical care, or report crimes. We cannot go backwards on community wellbeing.

“Raising the fear standard for someone to have a qualifying asylum claim is not a solution because the people arriving at our borders have no idea how our asylum system works. Doing this will mean that vulnerable people facing threats will be deported to their deaths. We cannot go backwards on protecting human lives.

“Four bad ideas. Four bad ideas that will make the border chaotic. Four bad ideas that will hurt communities across the nation. Four bad ideas that will cost thousands of human lives.

“Good ideas are out there that support communities doing the work of welcome at the border. Good ideas would expand legal pathways and update the asylum system for the 21st century. Good ideas would add immigration judges, asylum officers, and staff at ports-of-entry. Good ideas would use the President’s parole authority to expand safe, orderly, legal means for immigrants to enter the country. Why ignore these good ideas to chase the empty promises and known failures of those four bad ideas?

“We urge Congress to vote down a bill with any of these bad ideas rather than follow the Biden administration’s path to failure at the border.”