Last week, Attorney General Steve Marshall filed two briefs in support of lawsuits seeking to halt the Biden administration’s reversal of two Trump-era immigration policies.
Actions undertaken by the Alabama Attorney General’s Office seek to retain the “Remain in Mexico” and “Title 42” programs instituted by the previous administration, which Marshall maintains have been effective in securing the southern border.
The “Remain in Mexico” policy requires immigrants seeking asylum in the United States to stay in the bordering country while their claim is being processed.
“Title 42,” invoked by the Trump White House, allows the federal government to maintain certain immigration restrictions due to an ongoing public health emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement, Marshall noted his efforts to keep in place a decision made by the courts which ruled that the Biden administration was in violation of the law when it revoked the “Remain in Mexico” policy.
“Two lower courts held that the Biden administration violated federal law in how it suspended the Remain in Mexico policy, and I joined a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold those decisions,” stated Marshall in a release. “The Remain in Mexico policy has been a vital means of protecting Alabama and other states from the growing surge of illegal aliens from the nation’s southern border.”
Additionally, Alabama’s chief law enforcement officer touched on his efforts to combat Biden’s intentions to remove “Title 42″ immigration restrictions.
“Furthermore, I have filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the Biden administration from hastily ending enforcement of Title 42, which since March 2020 has provided the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) additional authority to remove aliens attempting to cross the border,” continued Marshall. “Though repealing Title 42 would lead to an even greater influx of illegal immigration that DHS is not presently equipped to handle, the Biden administration has pressed forward nonetheless.”
He added, “The White House’s illegal immigration failures are so out of control that Biden himself has reportedly lashed out at his staff over who he needs ‘to fire’ for the border crisis. He had better look in the mirror.”
According to the attorney general, Biden’s recent actions indicate that the president intends to “double down on his open borders agenda.”
“While his own Homeland Security secretary has said the border situation is ‘worse now than it, frankly, has been in at least 20 years, if not ever,’ Joe Biden has only doubled down on his open borders agenda,” proclaimed Marshall. “He is shelving two of the most successful programs for keeping our borders secure. Biden dropped enforcement of Remain in Mexico on his first day in office and the result was a surge in border encounters from 78,000 in January 2021 to over 200,000 by July 2021.”
He concluded, “What’s more, the Biden administration has been releasing unprecedented numbers of illegal aliens all across America – over 750,000 from January 2021 to February 2022. Now, he wants to end the Title 42 measure. Since March 20, 2020, when Title 42 was invoked to protect our borders, it has prevented over 1.7 million illegal entries into the U.S.”
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
