PHOENIX—Rep. Greg Stanton released the following statement ahead of the end of Title 42 on May 11:
“This Administration has insisted for months and months that it would be ready to handle the surge of traffic once Title 42 is lifted—but it has proven unable to even adequately deal with the border traffic we have now. They are only fooling themselves, and those of us who work with communities on the front lines know better.
It’s fallen on border towns, local law enforcement and humanitarian groups to pick up the burden of the federal government’s negligence for many, many years—and it’s only gotten worse. I am deeply frustrated the Administration has failed to take full advantage of the time afforded to it, despite repeated bipartisan calls from me and my colleagues to either seek emergency resources from Congress or use the full weight of the Executive Branch to push for long-overdue immigration and border security reform.”
In November 2022, Stanton directly appealed to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas [LINK], writing, “It has been clear for months: changing America’s policy on Title 42 without a plan in place and the resources necessary will overwhelm communities and humanitarian organizations along the Southwest border.” He also requested “a full accounting of the Administration’s plan” and a formal, written request for “any additional funding DHS may need to secure the border while providing a safe lawful, and humane processing system for arriving migrants.”
After the Biden Administration announced in January 2023 that it would “surge additional resources” to the border in anticipation of Title 42 being lifted, Stanton said he “expect[ed] the Administration to provide much more detail about exactly how these funds will be put to use—to Congress and to border communities.” [LINK]
Stanton sharply criticized Mayorkas during an April 2022 House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, saying at the time the federal government was ‘not prepared’ for Title 42 to end. [LINK] He also worked with a group of bipartisan lawmakers to introduce legislation to force the Administration to put together a plan to handle the expected increase in migration once Title 42 was lifted. [LINK]