Tangle - The end of Title 42.

Episode Date: March 31, 2022

Yesterday, The New York Times reported that the Biden administration is planning to end Title 42, the emergency CDC health order that has restricted immigration at U.S. land borders since the beginning of the pandemic. Plus, a question about America's attitude towards immigrants.You can read today's podcast here.You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and produced by Trevor Eichhorn. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.

Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, the place where you get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking without all that hysterical nonsense you find everywhere else. I'm your host, Isaac Soule, and on today's episode, we are going to be talking about Title 42, the public health order that came into effect during President Trump's term in office, and which we just found out yesterday is going to be ending pretty soon. Before we jump in, though, we'll start off with some quick hits. First up, President Biden took his fourth shot of Pfizer's COVID vaccine yesterday and also announced the launch of COVID.gov, a one-stop shop for tests, vaccines, and masks. Number two, Sandy Hook families rejected a settlement offer from InfoWars host Alex Jones, who was found liable for damages after claiming the 2012 mass shooting was a hoax. Number three,

Representative Madison Cawthorn, the Republican from North Carolina, said he exaggerated claims he made on a YouTube show that he witnessed House Republican colleagues doing cocaine and was invited to sex parties. Number four, the White House declassified intelligence reports suggesting Vladimir Putin is receiving bad information from advisors who are fearful of explaining the reality of the war in Ukraine. Number five, Ukraine is sending in buses to the besieged city of Mariupol to evacuate citizens after a temporary ceasefire. Alright, that brings us to today's topic, Title 42. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the Biden administration is planning to end Title 42, the emergency CDC health order that has

restricted immigration at U.S. land borders since the beginning of the pandemic. The Trump administration enacted Title 42 in March of 2020 as a temporary pandemic response. It has since been used to turn migrants away at the border without hearing their asylum claims. The Biden administration's recent moves, including the construction of new migrant holding facilities and the solicitation of contracts for new transportation services, cause widespread speculation that the end of Title 42 is near. Immigration officials are bracing for an unprecedented spike in arrivals of migrants at the border when the restriction is lifted, which is currently planned for May 23rd. CBS News

reported that the Department of Homeland Security, the DHS, was creating contingency plans for the possibility of 12,000 to 18,000 migrants entering the United States custody daily. During 2021, there were 2 million arrests at the borders, an all-time high, while some 1.7 million migrants were expelled from the country under Title 42. DHS documents reviewed by CBS report an average of about 7,100 migrant encounters per day right now. Fundamentally, Title 42 is a public health policy, not an immigration one, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is responsible for implementing and lifting it. But public health experts have said it is ineffective at stopping the spread of COVID-19, and migrants do not pose serious transmission risks at this

stage in the pandemic. Other critics of the order have said it should be lifted on humanitarian grounds, given that it prevents migrants from making their legal claims to asylum, and often leaves them stranded on the Mexican side of the border in squalid and unsafe conditions. The decision to lift the order in May has significant political risk for Democrats who worry about a border crisis leading up to the midterms, but are also interested in quieting criticism of Biden from the left, who says maintaining Trump's border policy is cruel and ineffective. Below, we'll take a look at some arguments from the right and left about Title 42, as well as some reactions to the announcement. First up, we'll start with what the right is saying.

Many on the right criticized the Biden administration's decision, saying Title 42 should remain active until there is a replacement. Some say Biden is right to end the order, but Congress should create a new measure that isn't contingent on having a public health crisis. Others warn that we can expect the situation on the border to spiral out of control. Kareem Hajar said Biden can no longer hide behind a Title 42 order. The problem is that the White House currently has no comprehensive backup plan for a post-Title 42 border, which is why it's extending the policy until late May and scrambling in preparation, Hajar wrote. It recently created the Southwest Border Coordinating Center to help border agencies brace for the impending surge. While most Democrats have opposed the policy and questioned the validity of its public health purposes, Arizona's Democratic Senators Kyrsten

Sinema and Mark Kelly wrote a letter to President Biden asking for Title 42 to continue until, quote, you are completely ready to implement and coordinate a comprehensive plan that ensures a secure, orderly, and humane process at the border. Comprehensive currently seems like a long shot. The southern border is being inundated by migrants, with about 7,100 encounters on a daily basis and over 160,000 encounters in February alone. In February of 2021, there were 101,000 encounters, and in February 2020, there were 36,687. The situation is so dire that DHS Deputy Secretary John Thien asked employees to consider joining the DHS volunteer force, Hodger wrote. Despite turning over a million migrants away under Title 42,

the Biden administration has been releasing thousands of families into the interior, further encouraging the current surge on the southern border. In Newsweek, Ira Melman said Biden is ending the only provision currently controlling our border. Ending Title 42 along with other COVID restrictions would not be a problem except for the fact that as a result of a string of other policy decisions the Biden administration has made over the past 14 months, it is the only functioning mechanism still in place to remove migrants who cross our borders illegally. The result of scrapping Title 42 without restoring other border enforcement policies that the administration has systematically jettisoned would be sheer chaos.

Who says so? President Biden's own Department of Homeland Security, Melman said. According to a report by Axios citing officials within the DHS, ending Title 42 would result in the immediate surge of 170,000 additional migrants attempting to enter the United States illegally. And the administration does have other options. For starters, the president could keep Title 42 in place, he added. COVID may not be as big of a public health threat as it was a few months ago, but it hasn't gone away entirely. As the past two years have taught us, there are a lot of letters in the Greek alphabet, and a new variant could come roaring back with little notice, he wrote. The administration could also reinstate the Migrant Protection Protocols, MPP, under which third-country migrants seeking asylum wait in Mexico pending a hearing to

determine if their claims have merit before being allowed to enter the U.S. While it was in place, it effectively deterred migrants from filing meritless asylum claims in being allowed to enter the U.S. While it was in place, it effectively deterred migrants from filing meritless asylum claims in an attempt to enter the country. Charles C.W. Cook wrote that ending Title 42 is the right call, legally, but now Congress should do something. Critics of the move are worried about the effect that losing Title 42 as a tool will have on illegal immigration, he wrote. This worry is justified. In fact, I share it myself. But that Title 42 has been proven to be a useful weapon against illegal immigration does not mean that it can be maintained outside of its legal context. It can't. Our presidents are not dictators and

they are not allowed to scour the statute books for workarounds. If Congress wishes to give the executive branch more power to deal with illegal immigration, and it absolutely should want to do that, then it should get busy doing so. Indeed, everyone involved in this contretemps is upside down, Cook said. President Biden believes that COVID-19 is still a big problem, and yet he is on the verge of rescinding Trump's Title 42 order on the grounds that the pandemic is functionally over, while the House Freedom Caucus opposes both COVID-19 mandates and public health emergencies, and yet wants Title 42 prolonged on the grounds that those mandates and emergencies still exist. If the House Freedom

Caucus believes that the United States should be tougher on illegal immigrants, then it should be making the case for a broader Title 42-esque law that is in no way contingent upon the existence of COVID-19 mandates and public health emergencies, or anything else so subjective. Congress sets immigration law in this country, and under the United States Constitution, it is near plenary power to do so. If it wishes to, it can use that power for a change. Alright, that is it for what the right is saying, which brings us to what the left is saying. The left argues that Title 42 is inhumane and ending it is long overdue. Some call out Biden's failure to make anyone happy, saying his maintaining of the policy was a bad decision.

Others say Biden must deal with migrants humanely. In the Washington Post, Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman called it an abject failure on immigration. The big question will be what happens when more are permitted to enter the system. That question has substantive ramifications, how will they all be processed, and political ones, how will Democrats respond when Republicans scream? There are no easy answers here for Democrats, they wrote, but one way forward might be rooted in a recognition that using Title 42 to keep migrants out bought President Biden and Democrats no goodwill, either from Republicans or the public. This policy didn't work substantively or politically, they said. Its rationale,

that it's needed for public health purposes, has been widely denounced by public health experts as baseless. As policy for managing the border, which isn't even supposed to be its rationale anyway, its success has been highly questionable. As the American Immigration Council has demonstrated, Title 42 has actually led to an explosion in repeat efforts by expelled migrants to cross the border, because under the rule there is little penalty for trying. That has inflated raw numbers of encounters at the border. Nor has this worked politically for Biden. Republicans attacked Biden for months for having open borders even though huge numbers of migrants were being expelled without due process. And Biden's approval ratings on immigration are some of his lowest,

regularly running in the mid-30s down from the 50s when he took office. Elvia Diaz said former President Trump would love Biden's immigration policy. There's no other way of saying it, Diaz wrote. President Biden is only using Title 42 to expel asylum seekers from what former President Donald Trump called shithole countries. No one can say that's not true when Biden is exempting Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion from the public health rule that Trump imposed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. will take in some 100,000 Ukrainians with open arms. Can anyone really imagine boarding all these Ukrainians in airplanes and flying them back to their country under siege? Of course not. That would be inhumane and against international law.

Why is it okay, then, to do exactly the same thing to Haitians, for instance, who also face brutality and even death, Diaz asked. Why do the same thing to Haitians, for instance, who also face brutality and even death, Diaz asked. Why do the same thing to Central Americans or to Africans fleeing violence? We can't ignore the obvious any longer. Biden has expelled more than 1.7 million migrants and asylum seekers under Title 42. Many of them are black Haitians fleeing the island's violent political turmoil, as well as poor Central Americans and Africans fleeing violence. But are we to believe that Ukrainians pose no health risk just because they're white Europeans? Earlier this month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reminded its staff in a memo obtained by Politico that they are permitted to make exceptions, including for

Ukrainian nationals. How convenient, right? Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.

Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The New York Daily News editorial board said Biden must deal with migrants humanely. Over the past few days, migrants fleeing the war in Ukraine have made their way to northern Mexico and been waved through the U.S. southern border, putting an end to a short but harrowing journey to seek safety in a foreign land, the board said. Yards away, equally desperate travelers from Central and South America, Haiti, Cameroon, and elsewhere watched as the Ukrainians were afforded the very same opportunity they'd waited months for. Little better illustrates the absurdity of Title 42. Ending Title 42 won't be a smooth process. Thousands have waited in the border area for months to access

their legal right to asylum, and news that the restriction is being scrapped is certain to prompt many more to make the trek, the board added. The Biden administration must not let the aftermath descend into chaos. That would be an additional injustice to those who have already waited so long for the orderly humanitarian process that they're guaranteed, and a perfectly wrapped gift to Republicans hungering to point to dysfunction ahead of the midterms. Biden officials should also understand that GOP commentators will call his and Open Border's administration no matter what, and cannot take the bait with a gratuitously heavy-handed approach.

All right, that is it for what the right is saying and what the left is saying, which brings us to my take. So this is the right call. However you feel about Title 42, it is clear that there is no longer a justification for keeping it in place as an immigration deterrent or a public health measure. If you think it is a legitimate public health measure, then there is simply no explanation for selectively waiving it for certain migrants as we have seen for Ukrainians. If you think it is a legitimate immigration deterrent, then you're in denial about the law's actual purpose and are supporting a lawless and illegitimate way to manage migrants. Reporting, writing, and thinking about immigration is something I've done for most of my political writing career, so I've seen enough freakouts about incoming border crises to know that it may not come to be.

The Biden administration has a full two months to prepare for lifting Title 42, and they have clearly been preparing for weeks to manage an influx of migrants. It is totally possible that the system collapses or become disordered, but I'm not going to knock them for that before it even happens. What I will knock them for is the failure to implement any real cogent immigration policy over the last year. Oftentimes, when people across the political spectrum are pissed off about something, it indicates compromise or moderation. In this case, though, it really is a product of all the worst worlds. There have been an unprecedented number of migrant crossings

that are overwhelming the border law enforcement system. There has also been plenty of inhumane treatment and clearly selective enforcement of policies like Title 42. It is a mess. Immigration has vexed every president in my lifetime, and so far Biden looks no different. On the raw numbers of border crossings, Trump's presidency was better than Biden's even before COVID-19, but it came with horrific deterrent policies like the separation of children from their parents and the encampment of migrants in unthinkable conditions in Mexico, as well as wasteful spending like the barely constructed border wall. Even still, Trump faced his own record-breaking migrant waves before COVID-19 shut the world down. Now, Biden is at the helm as things worsen. A combination of a friendlier posture, the fading of the pandemic, the dropping of inhumane border policies,

and an economic recovery that is outpacing our southern neighbors has accelerated the migration numbers. The border surge we saw over the last year was predictable. It happens, like clockwork, and was always going to be unprecedented given the backlogged demand from COVID-19 lockdowns. But it's also getting more complex. Rather than just migrants from Mexico and the Northern Triangle, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, we're also seeing a huge influx of migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The demographics, simply put, are changing. Still missing from any path forward is a comprehensive border solution from Congress, which is where it should come from. For the last decade, we've gotten nothing more than a rotating bit of executive action throwing

buckets of water on a forest fire. The only real solution in my eyes has been the one I've been advocating for years, a massive increase in judges, lawyers, and administrative officials to properly adjudicate asylum claims. The only way to follow the law, act humanely, and organize the border is to give migrants their legal right to make their asylum case, judge it, and then make a decision about whether to deport them or allow them in. Any other policies, whether it's expelling millions of asylum seekers under the cover of an unnecessary health order or catching and releasing millions before properly processing them, ends in a disorderly or inhumane process or both. There are few priorities Congress and Biden should be putting ahead of this problem, and few excuses left not to overhaul the system. Unfortunately, it looks like the best we're going to get is another patchwork of executive action,

federal rules, and disparate local enforcement. And as long as that is the case, the system will continue to deteriorate. All right, that is it for my take, which brings us to your questions answered. Kat in Allentown, Pennsylvania asked, why are Americans so afraid of immigrants coming to America? What is the real reason we are a country built on immigrants? So a relevant question for today, I guess. I think it is a combination of all the reasons you've probably heard. Jobs, racism, crime, human nature, whatever. I'll say from the outset that I think the data is fairly conclusive that both legal and undocumented immigrants are much less likely to commit crime than native-born Americans. What makes the issue so radioactive is that when an

undocumented immigrant commits a crime like drunk driving or assault or murder, it often becomes front page news. The data on jobs and wages is much more contentious. There's plenty of evidence employers will hire undocumented immigrants to keep wages low. There's also evidence that undocumented immigrants mostly take jobs Americans don't want. When you get into legal immigration, it becomes a lot trickier. Plenty of highly skilled immigrants are taking desirable jobs in the United States, but that's also the kind of immigration that immigration restrictionists usually support. So it's a really nuanced issue. I think the single most important thing, though, is just human nature. We are basically pre-programmed for millions of years of evolution to be wary of people who look sound or act differently than we do. That's the great challenge of America's cultural melting pot, and it's not just America. I think many U.S. citizens believe we are uniquely racist or uniquely anti-immigrant, and your question kind of implies that too. But the truth is really the opposite. Immigration

restrictionists have prominent political power in most countries. Go ahead and explore the policies of basically any country in the world, and you'll find this. You can even look at the countries we have traditionally tricky relationships with, like Mexico. Many Americans are familiar with the political factions here who are rarier outright opposed to Mexicans immigrating to America, but migrants arriving in Mexico from Haiti or Central America are also treated horribly. Polling shows that Mexican citizens don't want to grant asylum to Central Americans the same way many Americans don't want to grant asylum to Mexicans and Central Americans. The anti-immigrant sentiments exist in Mexico just like they exist here.

So, yeah, it's a complicated and multifaceted issue. It's not as simple as jobs, and it's not as simple as xenophobia, and it's definitely not a uniquely American issue. It's not as simple as jobs and it's not as simple as xenophobia, and it's definitely not a uniquely American issue. All right, next up is our story that matters for today. This one is about President Biden announcing a plan to release an additional 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation's strategic petroleum reserves. The new plan is the latest administration effort to get control of rising gas prices. It's unclear how long the release will go on, but some expect it could last for several months. As we explained in our deep dive on gas prices,

this is one way an administration can move the needle. Oil dropped by $5 per barrel in a matter of minutes after news of the plan was released. The Associated Press has a story. There's a link to it in today's newsletter. Next up is our numbers section, all tied closely to our story today. The number of border encounters in fiscal year 2021, according to the CBP, was 1.7 million. The number of border encounters in fiscal year 2019, according to the CBP, was 977,000. The total number of legal and illegal immigrants in the United States is 46.2 million, and the estimated number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. in 2017, according to Pew's latest research, was 10.5 million. The percentage of Americans who say immigrants make the country stronger, million. The percentage of Americans who say immigrants make the country stronger,

according to a 2018 Global Pew survey, was 59%. The percentage who said immigrants are a burden was 34%. All right, last but not least, our have a nice day story. The Ukrainian soldier who went viral for cursing out a Russian war trip, I won't repeat his words here, has been returned home in a prisoner swap and now awarded a medal. I'm gonna butcher his name but I believe it is Roman Herbov, became a global sensation after a recording of him cursed out a Russian warship insisting he surrender Snake Island and that video was shared online. Initial reports were that he had died alongside 13 other border guards on the island, but news outlets later discovered they had actually been taken prisoner. Ukraine's parliament then announced that there were 19

soldiers, and some had been returned to Ukraine in a prisoner swap while others were killed. On Tuesday, Roman Herbav received a medal for his actions in his hometown of Cherkassy. The Guardian has a story, and there's a link to it in today's newsletter. All right, that's it for the pod today, everybody. As always, if you want to hear from us tomorrow, you have to subscribe. Readtangle.com slash membership. Or just click one of the links in the podcast.

You have to subscribe if you want to hear from us tomorrow. Otherwise, you're going to go a whole weekend without hearing my voice or seeing my writing, which you don't want, right? So go do it. Subscribe. All right, everybody. If not, we'll see you on Monday. Peace. Our newsletter is written by Isaac Saul, edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle's social media manager, Magdalena Bokova, who also helped create our logo. The podcast is edited by Trevor Eichhorn, and music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. For more from Tangle, subscribe to our newsletter or check out our content archives at www.readtangle.com. We'll be right back. Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.