(RepublicanNews.org) – Former President Donald Trump’s project to build a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border provoked strident objections from Democrats, but it’s coming up again as the U.S. faces a historic surge of would-be immigrants.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), a former presidential challenger running against Barack Obama in 2012, is pushing the Biden administration to finish that wall.
In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Romney said the White House won’t even acknowledge that the border crisis is serious. With the expiration of Title 42 looming on May 11th, he wrote, a surge of migrants “will have disastrous effects on the security of our nation.”
Title 42 is a federal rule signed by then-President Donald Trump in 2020. The COVID-era rule allows the U.S. to quickly expel migrants on public health grounds. The rule has been used nearly 3 million times in recent years to turn away migrants at the border.
But the rule expired May 11th, and border cities such as El Paso, Texas, are already reporting that thousands more immigrants than usual are camping out and lining up on the Mexican side of the border. They believe they will have an easier time entering the U.S. after Title 42 expires, though politicians on both sides of the aisle have been trying unsuccessfully to convince them that is not true.
Joined by 14 other Republican senators who signed his letter, Romney criticized the 2021 decision to stop construction on the border wall. That work stoppage has brought about a “humanitarian crisis” at the border, he wrote, and lawmakers want to know the current and future status of work on the wall.
For its part, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says it is focusing on technological solutions. Using the jargon of the big tech world, one official said DHS is using “smart border security solutions” and “making historic investments in technology.” It is not clear what these smart solutions may be.
Copyright 2023, RepublicanNews.org
