WASHINGTON – Today on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed the implications of a U.S. District Court’s Title 42 ruling on the Biden administration’s ongoing failure to address the border crisis and the immediate need for solutions prior to the end of this public health order in five weeks. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below, and video can be found here.

“What is happening now on the border and has happened the last two years under the Biden administration has been nothing short of a humanitarian and public safety crisis.”

“If you think things are bad now, they’re about to get worse. Earlier this week a D.C. District Court judge vacated the Center for Disease Control Title 42 order.”

“This is a public health order that enabled the Border Patrol at least to use that tool to try to modulate the flow of humanity coming across the border, but a district judge here has vacated Title 42 now. The judge has granted a five-week stay, giving the Department of Homeland Security until midnight on December the 21st to come up with a new plan.”

“This isn’t a time to start scrambling and come up with a plan. It should have been happening years ago.”

“Title 42 has been one of the few remaining tools that have been used to prevent even greater chaos than what I’ve described, and now with it potentially likely going away, even that tool will be lost.” 

“The Biden border crisis is entirely predictable, and it’s a result of the Biden administration dismantling what few tools that were available to [the] Border Patrol and to the U.S. government to control unrestricted access to the United States.”

“No one is suggesting that Title 42 is a permanent solution or a partial solution to our border security problems. Far from it. But the administration should have been planning years ago for the day that Title 42 would be lifted because once Title 42 is lifted, unless other policies that are put in place for expedited removal of people who cannot legally enter the country, for example, we’re going to lose control of the border entirely.”

“The administration has shown zero interest in working with Congress to craft real change. That needs to change. Before Title 42 goes away, the administration must implement a serious plan quickly and efficiently and yes, fairly, to enforce our immigration laws at the border and deter further illegal immigration.”