by Elizabeth Troutman
Gov. Doug Ducey has called on Arizona’s congressional delegation to urge the Biden administration to maintain Title 42 restrictions, which allow federal officials to prohibit entry into the U.S. for those posing a potential health risk.
“I am writing to you today to share details of the impact this dangerous and misguided idea would have on Arizona and to request your assistance on behalf of the people of Arizona in urging the Biden administration to maintain these critical protections,” Ducey wrote last week in a letter to Arizona’s 11 members of Congress.
The governor also sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, urging them to maintain restrictions for the protection of border patrol, law enforcement, nonprofits and health care professionals. Ducey wrote that repealing Title 42 “proactively and knowingly import[s] COVID-19 variants into the United States, starting in our border states.”
“Title 42 is one of the only measures remaining in place which allows not only the federal authorities but also state and local public health professionals to maintain public health that they have worked so hard for over the past 17 months of this pandemic,” Ducey wrote.
In a news release, the governor’s office cited a Wall Street Journal report that “the pandemic is raging in South America, which has just 5% of the world’s population but now accounts for a quarter of the global death toll.”
Ducey’s recent letters are not his first criticisms of President Joe Biden’s border policies. Ducey and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott asked their fellow governors last month to send any available law enforcement resources to Texas and Arizona along the U.S.-Mexico border as illegal border crossings and the number of unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody increased. Ducey joined 19 other governors in May to issue a letter calling for the Biden administration to reverse its border policies.
In defense of Title 42, Ducey has written that the restriction enabled Customs and Border Protection to expel more than 329,000 people who illegally crossed into the U.S.
Ducey believes the president lacks “a plan, the resources, the facilities, or indeed the ability to deal with the unaccompanied minors and families currently being permitted to cross.”
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Elizabeth Troutman is a contributor to The Center Square.
