White House Issues Veto Threat For Border Bill As Pandemic Deportation Tool Expires

WASHINGTON — The White House is threatening to veto a top-priority bill from House Republicans to crack down on illegal immigration at the Mexican border as the administration’s use of a pandemic-era tool to expel most migrants comes to an end.

“This bill would make things worse, not better,” President Joe Biden’s Office of Management and Budget wrote Monday as the GOP-led House prepares to pass the “Secure the Border Act of 2023” later this month. “Because this bill does very little to actually increase border security while doing a great deal to trample on the nation’s core values and international obligations, it should be rejected.”

The veto threat comes as Biden’s use of Title 42, a public health statute, to deport migrants without an asylum hearing will come to an end on Thursday because of a court order.

That policy began under former President Donald Trump, who made his opposition to illegal immigration a cornerstone of his 2016 campaign, and cited the COVID-19 pandemic as justification. Biden continued the policy during his first two years in office even as he called for legislation increasing the number of immigrants permitted into the country and ramping up the infrastructure for processing asylum claims.

Illegal immigration fell sharply during the pandemic, but rose again as the disease waned. Experts predict that the end of Title 42 will lead to a dramatic increase in the number of migrants trying to get into the country to claim asylum.

Many Republicans accuse Biden of encouraging migrants to come into the country illegally and have demanded that he resume building a barrier along the southern border that was underway under Trump.

The bill pushed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, would require the resumption of border wall construction that was suspended by Biden when he took office, increase the number of Border Patrol agents and make it harder for migrants to qualify for asylum, among numerous other provisions.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at her Monday daily briefing that Biden remains ready to work with Republicans on a comprehensive immigration package, but not one like the bill the House is trying to pass. “Instead of providing the needed resources for more border security technology and asylum officers and judges, it would waste taxpayer dollars on an ineffective wall, again ― an ineffective wall that can’t even withstand heavy winds, let alone sophisticated criminal smuggling networks,” she said.

It’s unlikely that Monday’s veto threat will ever be necessary, as the House Republican proposal has little chance of passing in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.

Trump promised during his 2016 campaign that he would build a wall along the entire southern border and force Mexico to pay for it. But he never asked Mexico to pay, and could not persuade Congress to pay for it, either, even when both chambers were controlled by Republicans.

He ultimately diverted billions of dollars from housing and other programs for military service members to pay for building steel fencing as tall as 30 feet. A total of 405 miles of existing barrier were replaced with the new fence, but only 47 miles constitute new barrier, where none previously existed.