GOP homes in on border as midterm issue

Republicans are zeroing in on the border as a midterm attack issue on Democrats, seeing a political opportunity in the Biden administration’s decision to revoke a key restriction known as Title 42.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) held a briefing with GOP members and officials from the Border Patrol’s labor union Monday to talk about the impact of lifting the policy.

“Have you watched some of the footage of what goes on just on the other side of the border? Looks like it comes from Ukraine,” McCarthy told reporters.

The Title 42 policy, first enacted by the Trump administration in March 2020 as the coronavirus gripped the country, lets the U.S. turn away migrants to prevent “the introduction of communicable diseases” without their first seeing an immigration judge.

The administration had been under pressure from the left to lift the policy, and the courts may soon have forced the administration’s hand. But by lifting the policy now, the White House has also given Republicans an opportunity to go on the attack with the number of migrants headed to the border expected to rise.

The Department of Homeland Security has forecast an increase of border crossing encounters from 7,000 per day to as many as 18,000 per day. Migrant encounters hit a record high of nearly 1.7 million encounters on the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal 2021.