Correa visits border ports as Title 42 expulsions set to end
With his new role as Ranking Member of the Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee, Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., is taking a hands-on approach.
Since he became ranking member in January, the Democrat has made half a dozen trips to the border to visit major ports of entry in Texas, Arizona and California.
What You Need To Know
· Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., visited ports of entry between the U.S. and Mexico this week in California, Arizona and Texas, ahead of plans to end Title 42 expulsions
· The Trump administration used Title 42 expulsions — which are separate from deportations, and limit an asylum seeker's ability to contest their expulsion — under the guise of a public health measure in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic
· Correa is also leading a bill to reform the immigration code to allow migrant workers who have been in the U.S. better opportunity to work and obtain permanent residency
“I want to talk to the men and women that are essentially at the front lines to see what's going on,” Correa said Friday, days after visits to Yuma, Ariz. and Calexico, Calif.
“The job of our men and women at the border is changing constantly," he continued. "I asked them, I said, ‘in your words, what are your missions?’ And they said, ‘number one, trade — 99.9% of everything that goes through that border is trade. Good stuff: food, manufactured goods. Number two, addressing the refugee challenge. Number three, what you want to keep back, which are the narcotics.’”
The Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee maintains oversight of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Correa’s trip comes roughly one month before the Biden administration will end Title 42 expulsions, under a part of the U.S. public health code that has allowed the U.S. to expel millions of migrants from the border since the pandemic began.
Title 42 was introduced into the public health code in the Public Health Service Act of 1944, giving the federal government authority to quarantine — and to prevent entry of people and property from areas experiencing the spread of communicable diseases. In March 2020, the Trump administration issued a public health order allowing for expulsion of unauthorized migrants and asylum seekers. Expulsion allows for migrants to be removed from the country without the opportunity to defend themselves or contest their case, unlike deportation proceedings.
“I think that's hypocritical for us to be talking about a health issue as a rationale for a refugee challenge. One of the big issues I addressed while I was at the border was Title 42," said Correa, an outspoken critic of the policy. "I asked the officers, are we ready to essentially assume the normal refugee process, apply normal refugee laws — which means Title 42 out of the way. And they told me they're ready to make that transition."
Correa said during his visit he saw processing tents popping up at ports of entry in anticipation for the policy rollback.
It also comes ahead of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas’ trip to Capitol Hill on Tuesday and Wednesday to testify before the Senate and the House respectively.
“Sadly, I think it's going to fall on partisan ears. People will be there to attack him, people will be there to defend him,” Correa said. “The reason I went to the border is I wanted to see Secretary Mayorkas’ work.”
The secretary, Correa said, has prepared the department for the repeal of Title 42, and that the goal is to ensure refugees are treated humanely, correctly and legally.
“And I wanted to make sure that I saw that with my own eyes,” explained Correa. “Some of those agents, they said, 'Lou, we're getting refugees at the border from all over the world, from China, India, Africa, refugees that we've never seen before.' And that tells you that COVID, the damage from the economic destruction from COVID, is still circulating around the world."
"We're probably one of the very few countries, if not the only country in the world, that came out of COVID hitting on all eight cylinders," he added. "Our economy is growing. We have inflation, we need workers.”
Last month, Correa led a group of Democrats from California, New York and Illinois in reintroducing the "Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929" bill, which originally created a process allowing immigrants to apply for permanent residency — better known as a “green card” — provided they could prove they arrived in the U.S. before 1921, and met a handful of other criteria.
The Registry Act has been updated a handful of times over the decades, including in 1986, when the cutoff was moved to Jan. 1, 1972. The new bill would move that year up to 2015.
“So if you're an undocumented person in the U.S. and you got here before 1972, you can apply to change your status — that is, trying to apply for a legal green card,” Correa told Spectrum News last month. “We need immigrants. Right now we have 10, 11 million undocumented workers in the United States. Fifty percent of all farmworkers are undocumented. We need more farm workers.”
While Correa admits his bill will likely fail in the Republican-controlled House, he remains optimistic, pointing out that the last major immigration reform bill, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.
“Do you think we in Washington are going to deport all those farmworkers — 50% of our farm workers are undocumented. Are we going to kick them out of the country? Then who is going to essentially harvest our crops, plant our crops? It's not going to happen. And I would hope that one of these days, we can have an honest discussion,” he said.
Correa said that one of the most surprising parts of his border visit was the amount of goods crossing the border that he witnessed over the two day trip.
“Our new top trading partner in the world is Canada, number two is Mexico, and China continues to go down that list, further and further down,” Correa said, noting that he hopes to wrap up his Mexico border trips before summer, so he can head north to the Canadian border.
He also added that a majority of the commerce he witnessed was done not between the federal government and suppliers, but by private companies.
“It's the private companies that buy and sell goods that are actually making these things happen," Correa said. "Most of the time you get to Washington, and we don't talk about these facts. What we talk about is immigration as an immigration issue. Immigration has to be talked about as the big economic issue.”
By:
Cassie Semyon
Source:
Spectrum News1
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