Democrats, media lament SCOTUS decision on Title 42 as 'band-aid,' criticize Biden administration
An ACLU lawyer suggested people were 'overstating' what is happening at the border
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Some Democrats and members of the media criticized the Supreme Court's decision to leave Title 42 in place by labeling the policy as a "crutch," as well as calling out the Biden administration for a lack of action at the border.
Title 42, a Trump-era policy put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, was set to expire at the end of this month.
The Supreme Court temporarily halted the expiration of Title 42 on Tuesday and extended it through February.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Democrats such as Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, have opposed the lifting of the measure due to the crisis at the border and have demanded the administration act.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, joins CNN to discuss the SCOTUS decision on Title 42. (Screenshot/CNN)
SUPREME COURT PRAISED FOR TITLE 42 BORDER SECURITY RULING: ‘HUGE VICTORY'
"The decision by the Supreme Court only buys the administration time to come up with the right policy. The Supreme Court is not a job to legislate, that's really up to Congress and to the administration. I will say this, President Obama did not have Title 42, and he was able to manage the border without Title 42. So there's a way of doing this," Cuellar said Wednesday during an appearance on CNN.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He called on the Biden administration to "stand up" and "do the right thing."
"The administration needs to stand up, they need to do the right thing, and they need to understand that we, at the border, the border community, like El Paso, Eagle Pass and other parts, we are taking the stress because of the inaction of the administration. I laid out three things that they can do right now, if they just had the fortitude to do it," Cuellar continued.
An ACLU lawyer, Lee Gelernt, told the hosts of "CNN This Morning" that people are "overstating what's happening at the border."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}STATE AGS WARN OF 'ENORMOUS' HARM IF TITLE 42 POLICY ENDS IN LAST-DITCH APPEAL TO SUPREME COURT
"From a public policy, you can’t misuse public health. It was not intended to regulate the border. I also think people are overstating what’s happening at the border. If you close the border for so long, of course, there’s going to be a temporary influx of people, but ultimately, it’ll even out, and the federal government has more than enough resources to deal with this," Gelernt said.
Gelernt also said that Title 42 was acting as a "crutch" and that the Biden administration has "not been great" on the border, adding that it was "troubling."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MSNBC's Chris Hayes, who also interviewed Gelernt on Tuesday, said during the interview that Title 42 was just a "way of avoiding the issue."
"It just seems like a way of avoiding the issue, and trying to, I don’t know what, strong arm the administration into keeping this Trump policy, but it just seems like a failure in every direction," he said.
Migrants stand across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. (Border Patrol)
TITLE 42'S EXPECTED END SPELLS CHAOS IN COURTROOMS
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Several Democrats and pundits found themselves agreeing with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who sided with Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson and emphasized in their dissent that the border crisis was not a COVID-19 crisis.
Julian Castro, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama administration, told MSNBC that Gorsuch was being blunt and "to the point" in his opinion.
"This was always bogus… that they use Title 42 in an unprecedented way to suggest that because of the Covid crisis you had to summarily reject the ability of people to even try to even claim asylum," Castro said. "There were always better, less burdensome ways to ensure you could maintain the public health, and at this point nobody's even pretending that there’s some huge Covid threat from these migrants.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"They have figured out ways to deal with that already, so what’s left is that Republicans basically want to shut down our asylum system. They don’t want these folks to even make their claims for asylum under whatever circumstances they would like to make them. That is the real agenda here."
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, told CNN that he supported keeping Title 42 until they had a permanent solution.
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, attends a House Financial Services Committee hearing titled Monetary Policy and the State of the Economy featuring testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in Rayburn Building on Feb. 27, 2018. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/ Getty Images)
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"That is what it is, it's a band-aid," he said. "We need a permanent solution, we need to pass a bill that fixes the problem. The Safe Zone Act is the only proposal I have seen in the United States Congress since I’ve been there that could alleviate the problem on our southern border."