The Biden administration’s decision to end sweeping asylum limits at the southern border in May satisfied demands by prominent Democrats awaiting the end of a program created by Donald Trump in the name of public health.
But it creates thorny political challenges for border-region Democrats who face the prospect of an increase in migrants who have for two years been denied the chance to seek asylum in the US.
In unusually harsh critiques of a president from their own party, some congressional Democrats with the toughest re-election prospects are warning that the administration is woefully unprepared.
“This is a crisis, and in my estimation, because of a lack of planning from the administration, it’s about to get worse,” said Senator Mark Kelly, of Arizona.
Kelly and his fellow Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema met on Wednesday with the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, to press their case for the administration to better plan and coordinate a response.
Last week, they wrote to Joe Biden, urging him to delay ending the pandemic rules until his administration was “completely ready to execute and coordinate a comprehensive plan that ensures a secure, orderly, and humane process at the border”.
Sinema and the Texas Republican senator John Cornyn sent a similar letter to Mayorkas on Thursday. Democrats Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, and Maggie Hassan, of New Hampshire, another top target for Republicans, were critical of the decision on Friday.
Migrants have been expelled from the US more than 1.7m times under public health powers invoked in March 2020 that are designed to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
The Biden administration announced plans on Friday to end Title 42 authority, named for a 1944 public health law, by 23 May. Near the height of the Omicron variant in late January, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended the order to this week.
The announcement comes after mounting pressure from prominent Democrats including the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to end a Trump-era program they cast as an excuse to wriggle out of obligations under US law and international treaty to protect anyone fleeing persecution.
Kelly, Sinema and other Democrats say the emergency powers must go away eventually but the federal government has failed to develop and share plans to minimize the impact on communities near the border and the local religious and non-profit groups that help migrants there.
“I’ve worked really hard to make it very clear to them that this situation is unacceptable, and they seem to get the message,” Kelly said. “It’s more challenging to get them to turn this into an actionable plan.”
Kelly is among the most vulnerable Democrats in the Senate, aggressively targeted by Republicans in what is already a tough year for Democrats fighting to hold their razor-thin majority.
Kelly declined to discuss the impact of the decision on his re-election campaign.
“They know the realities of Arizona and its history, especially as a border state,” Mike Noble, a Phoenix-based pollster, said of Arizona’s senators. “If they want to maintain their seats, they have to be tough on immigration, and if not, they could find themselves out of a job.”
Republicans see rising numbers of migrants as a winning issue with swing voters, particularly in border states. An AP-NORC poll conducted in January found just 39% of Americans approve of how Biden is handling immigration. Eighty-seven per cent of Republicans said they disapprove but so did 34% of Democrats.
“The entire country sees the failure of the Biden administration and the laughing matter that this is to Kamala Harris, the self-appointed tsar,” said the Arizona governor, Doug Ducey, a Republican. “They’re gonna pay a hell of a price at the ballot box in November. In every state.”
In Texas, the Democratic congressmen Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez joined Republicans in expressing concern about ending Title 42.
“Small border communities lack the appropriate housing, transportation and healthcare infrastructure to manage the ongoing release of migrant populations into their jurisdictions,” the lawmakers wrote.
Cuellar’s progressive primary opponent, Jessica Cisneros, seized on the issue, saying Cuellar’s support for Title 42 amounted to “cruel and inhuman treatment of people whose stories and families resemble our own”.
Advocates for immigrants and refugees say it is long past time for the Biden administration to stop using public health rules to prevent people from claiming asylum.
Arizona’s senators seem to be looking at the border issue through a national political lens, said Joanna Williams, executive director of the Kino Border Initiative, which works in the border towns of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Mexico.
“They are underestimating Arizonans,” Williams said. “We really have a community of hospitality that can arise to the occasion and help people. The senators need to listen to what people here are saying. This isn’t Texas.”
Alex Miller, director of asylum seekers and families for the International Rescue Committee in Arizona, said with coronavirus positivity rates among new arrivals now at less than 1%, “the justification for closing the border is gone”.
“There is just no excuse for denying people fleeing from terrible abuse from getting asylum,” she said. “We have a moral responsibility to help these people.”
