WASHINGTON — Today, House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) and Oversight Committee Republicans raised concerns about the Biden Administration’s decision to terminate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Title 42 order that allows federal law enforcement to quickly expel illegal immigrants on public health grounds. In a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the Republican lawmakers emphasized the devastating consequences this action will have on U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) operations and described how American communities are already suffering from Biden’s historic, self-inflicted border crisis. They call for all documents and communications between DHS and the CDC to understand how the Administration is preparing to respond to the impending national security and humanitarian catastrophe on the southwest border.

“We write to conduct oversight of the Biden Administration’s decision to rescind a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s order, which will turn the humanitarian and national security crisis on the U.S. southern border into a catastrophe,” wrote the lawmakers. “The Administration’s decision comes at a time when Americans are still forced to comply with COVID-19 mandates in their daily lives. The Administration has decided to prioritize rescinding this order over rescinding mask and vaccine mandates for the American people. Immigration experts predict that rescinding the CDC’s Title 42 order will even further overwhelm U.S. Border Patrol officers and facilities. DHS must adequately prepare to respond to the impending border surge to prevent exacerbating the ongoing national security and humanitarian catastrophe.”

The CDC’s Title 42 order directs DHS to expel certain “covered noncitizens” without processing them under the immigration laws in Title 8. As of March 2022, officials had carried out over 1.7 million expulsions of aliens under various iterations of the Title 42 order. In calendar year 2021 alone, there were over two million apprehensions of illegal border crossers by USBP and more than 400,000 illegal immigrants were released into the U.S. during President Biden’s first year in office.

“The Biden Administration’s open borders policies and rhetoric have already created a humanitarian and national security crisis… Reportedly, DHS predicts that as many as 12,000 to 18,000 illegal border crossers per day would attempt to cross once the CDC’s Title 42 order is lifted. If current apprehension levels—which are already well above 5,000 per day on average—are indicative of a crisis, 12,000 to 18,000 illegal border crossers per day will be a catastrophe. The decision to rescind CDC’s Title 42 order is basically gifting a pandemic relief package for Transnational Criminal Organizations… [and] will also erode border security and cede more power to the cartels. USBP personnel are already stretched beyond their capacity. With the expected and dramatic border surge, even more illegal aliens will evade detection. And those aliens could include criminals and terrorists,” concluded the lawmakers.