Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr says he is continuing his fight against the Biden Administration’s “dangerous and unlawful immigration policies.” Late last week, Carr challenged the White House’s failure to enforce Title 42 nearly a month before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lifts the public health order altogether. Title 42 – which was first introduced by the CDC in March 2020 – allows border officials to prohibit the entry of migrants due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the policy, the U.S. has removed more than 1.7 million migrants from the southern border as of February 2022.
“Despite resounding push back from both sides of the aisle, the Biden administration is ignoring the law and doubling down on its ill-fated decision to revoke Title 42 during an unprecedented border crisis,” said Carr. “It is the paramount role of the federal government to secure our nation’s border and ports of entry, and anything less poses a significant risk to U.S. national security and overall public safety. We know that unchecked immigration policies are a source for human trafficking, drug smuggling and other violent crime, and we are once again stepping up to defend our state and our fellow Georgians from this administration’s unlawful actions.”
According to Carr, 50 percent of the total encounters at the southern border were processed for Title 42 expulsion in March 2022 alone. Also last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered 221,303 migrants at the southern border – the highest number under the Biden administration, Carr said. With the abrupt termination of Title 42, border officials are reportedly planning for scenarios of up to 18,000 migrants a day. Right now, officials are encountering between 7,000 to 8,000 migrants per day, the AG added.
Carr says that reports indicate that CBP is no longer using Title 42 to remove migrants from certain countries which led Carr to file a motion for the temporary restraining order to force CBP to comply with the public health order as the initial lawsuit moves forward.
According to CBP, fentanyl trafficking during FY 2021 increased by 1,066 percent. Just recently, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration warned of a nationwide spike in fentanyl-related mass-overdose events. In Georgia, fentanyl-involved overdose deaths increased by 106.2 percent from May 1, 2020, through April 30, 2021, Carr said.
Earlier this month, Carr joined two other attorneys general in filing suit against the Biden administration’s policy that seeks to avoid the deportation of many illegal immigrants, including those convicted of drug trafficking, domestic assault and other criminal offenses. In January of this year, Carr joined 15 attorneys general in urging the Biden administration to strengthen its efforts to fight the influx of deadly fentanyl that is flooding into the country from Mexico and China.
