U.S. Senator Marshall speaks at U.S.-Mexico border as Title 42 expires
At a Republican Senate Press Conference, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall (R—Kansas) revealed he would be going to the Texas-Mexico border. On the morning of Wednesday, May 11, 2023, he claimed that “the open southern boarder is the number one national security threat” that the U.S. faces, revealing that 11,000 people were apprehended at the boarder on Tuesday alone. This comes as Title 42 expires.
Title 42 is part of the Public Health Services Act of 1944, meant to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in the country. If there is a communicable disease in another country as determined by the U.S. surgeon general, health officials, with approval of the President, have the authority to prohibit “the introduction of persons and property from such countries or places” for as long as the health officials deem necessary.
The Trump Administration used Title 42 during the COVID-19 pandemic, designating hundreds of thousands of migrants for “expulsion.” Title 42 expulsions are removals by the U.S. government of persons who have recently been in a country where a communicable disease was present.
Title 42 was set to expire on Thursday, May 11, 2023, with some experts saying it would likely lead to mass immigration into the U.S.
Secretary Mayorkas said that just because the pandemic policy was ending does not mean the border is open and said that migrants would be returned.
At the border later that day, Sen. Marshall and Sen. Ted Budd (R—North Carolina) spoke on Fox Business just hours before Title 42 ended.
Co-host of The Bottom Line Sean Duffy asked if the border was actually worse than what can be seen on TV screens, to which Sen. Marshall said the news duo was “downplaying” the issue as there is “no way to keep up with the mass number of people that are coming across the border.”
“This is a humanitarian crisis,” Sen. Marshall said. “I’ve done mission work all over the world as a Senator, bud, and this is worse than anything that we’ve seen. There’s simply not enough places to hold people. Like Sen. Budd said, the true heroes are our border patrol officers. Over 10,000 people they apprehend a day. Over 3,000 escapees, or ‘gotaways’ as they call them, apprehended a day. That’s the size of my hometown every day for the next months, as far as we know, that many people will be coming across the border. We’re here to say thank you, of course, to our border patrol officers.”
Sen. Marshall also went live, being joined by Sen. Budd, Sen. Ted Cruz (R—Texas), Sen. John Hoeven (R—North Dakota), and Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd.
During his speech in Brownsville, Texas, Sen. Marshall said we need to “change policy.”
“We can’t keep doing what we’re doing,” Sen. Marshall said. “Our systems are overwhelmed…. They say ten percent of [the people] show up with some type of an illness or an injury. But they do an intake of over a thousand people a day here. They’re doing an incredible job. I don’t know what it’s going to look like here tomorrow.”
Sen. Marshall also said it was emotionally draining to be there, but that the nation needs to see it, and that President Joe Biden needs to see it for himself as well.
Sen. Cruz spoke next, calling the situation a “travesty unfolding on our southern border.” He informed everyone that 10,000 people were apprehended on Monday and that it was the highest number in history, before apprehending over 10,000 people on Tuesday—the highest number in history again. According to the Texas Senator, over 35,000 Venezuelans illegally crossed within the last month in just the area that they were in, not including the rest of the border. He also said 90 to 100 Chinese nationalists are also being smuggled in by Mexican drug cartels.
“I have to say that I am angry,” Sen. Cruz said. “This is deliberate. This is the decision that was made by President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and Congressional Democrats to open up the border to what is nothing less than an invasion.”
He also said that President Biden, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and AOC were not there because “they don’t give a damn about the dead bodies.” He then revealed he asked Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas how many migrants died crossing the border illegally last year. The number was 853, but Secretary Mayorkas didn’t know. Sen. Cruz claimed he also asked the about the number of women sexually assaulted by human traffickers as well as the number of children that were physically and sexually assaulted, but that Secretary Mayorkas couldn’t answer those questions either.
Sen. Cruz went on to say it was “modern day slavery” an “invasion” and that the Democrat leaders want the numbers to go up.
Sen. Hoeven highlighted the issue of drugs and human trafficking, and also said that they just learned that only 500 immigrants can be sent back a day.
“They just all eventually come in,” Sen. Hoeven said. “And they all have a cellphone now, so what’s the first thing they do? They call back to people in their country and people waiting on the other side and they say, ‘yes, I’m in here now so you come on up.’ And the cartels are getting rich. Think of the misery that they are exacting on all these people. And they’re getting rich doing it.”
Sen. Hoeven also said that 2.5 million immigrants came across last year and we are supposed to see an increase this year. However, he also said with better policies it could be stopped, and that every American needs to say to the Biden Administration “enforce the law.”
Sen. Budd addressed President Biden about his inaction around the border before mentioning the Build the Wall Now Act which he filed a few months ago when he entered the Senate.
“That takes money that’s already been appropriated,” Sen. Budd said. “It allows us to build the wall. It gives law enforcement a chance.”
Judd spoke next claiming that what everyone was witnessing was not safe, humane, or orderly.
“10,000 apprehensions means that we have a station that we just had 44 agents show up for muster,” Judd explained. “Only four deploy to the field to patrol the border…. 40 of those agents are doing administrative work. That means the cartel owns that area. The cartels can get anything that they want through that area.”
Judd also said it shouldn’t be a surprise that we have 70,000 Americans dying of fentanyl poisoning every year. He also claimed border patrol agents are “fed up with Joe Biden” and are tired of the rhetoric and of Secretary Mayorkas saying ‘give us time, we have a plan.’ Judd also claimed that they knew this was coming as he had spoken with the transition team when Joe Biden was becoming President.
“They knew what was going to happen. They did nothing,” Judd said. “I spoke with Secretary Mayorkas prior to his confirmation hearing. I told him what needed to happen. I even stayed within the parameters of Joe Biden. I did not ask them to stick with the Trump policies. I told them what they could do that were within Biden’s parameters. They refused.”
Judd said that context was important and that 10,000 apprehensions meant they were deploying 20 percent of their resources to the field in certain areas and could be as low as five percent in other areas, but border-wide we are deploying about 10 percent of our resources to the field. He did say it can be fixed, but it would need the political will to do it.
Sen. Marshall made a closing statement, talking on how he has called on the House to impeach Secretary Mayorkas and that he’s calling President Biden to see the problem for himself. He called Judd back up, asking him what the border patrol would need. Judd claimed the only thing they need is policy.
The meeting ended with them answering questions.
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Ian Brannan
Ian Brannan is an independent journalist who founded The Kansas Constitutional in April 2022. His work focuses on issues including abortion, Convention of States, drug policy, education, government, LGBT issues, media, and more. He is also the co-host of the Rainbow Rabble-Rousers podcast.
