Carr Challenges Biden Administration’s Failure to Enforce Title 42 Border Control Measure

ATLANTA, GA – Attorney General Chris Carr has challenged the Biden administration’s failure to enforce Title 42 nearly a month before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lifts the public health order altogether. First introduced by the CDC in March 2020, Title 42 allows border officials to prohibit the entry of migrants due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the policy, the U.S. has removed more than 1.7 million migrants from the southern border as of February 2022. Carr recently filed suit to block the Biden administration’s unlawful termination of the CDC order.

“Despite resounding push back from both sides of the aisle, the Biden administration is ignoring the law and doubling down on its ill-fated decision to revoke Title 42 during an unprecedented border crisis,” said Carr.

“It is the paramount role of the federal government to secure our nation’s border and ports of entry, and anything less poses a significant risk to U.S. national security and overall public safety. We know that unchecked immigration policies are a source for human trafficking, drug smuggling and other violent crime, and we are once again stepping up to defend our state and our fellow Georgians from this administration’s unlawful actions.”

Recent reports indicate that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is no longer using Title 42 to remove migrants from certain countries. On April 21, 2022, Carr filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to force CBP to comply with the public health order as the initial lawsuit moves forward.

In March 2022 alone, 50 percent of the total encounters at the southern border were processed for Title 42 expulsion. That same month, CBP encountered 221,303 migrants at the southern border – the highest number under the Biden administration. With the abrupt termination of Title 42, border officials are reportedly planning for scenarios of up to 18,000 migrants a day. Right now, officials are encountering between 7,000 to 8,000 migrants per day.

According to CBP, fentanyl trafficking during FY 2021 increased by 1,066 percent. Just recently, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration warned of a nationwide spike in fentanyl-related mass-overdose events. In Georgia, fentanyl-involved overdose deaths increased by 106.2 percent from May 1, 2020, through April 30, 2021.

In addition to Carr, attorneys general from the following states also joined in filing this most recent motion: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. The motion for a temporary restraining order was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana (Lafayette Division). Access a copy of the brief  here .

Fighting the Biden Administration's Dangerous and Unlawful Immigration Policies

Earlier this month, Carr joined two other attorneys general in filing suit against the Biden administration's dangerous and unlawful immigration policy that seeks to avoid the deportation of many illegal immigrants, including those convicted of drug trafficking, domestic assault and other criminal offenses. In August 2021, Carr joined 15 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief to stop this same unlawful immigration policy, then considered Interim Guidance.

In February 2021, Carr joined 17 attorneys general in urging the Biden administration to reverse its last-minute cancellation of Operation Talon, a nationwide U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation that focuses on the removal of convicted sex offenders who are illegally present in the U.S.

In January of this year, Carr joined 15 attorneys general in urging the Biden administration to strengthen its efforts to fight the influx of deadly fentanyl that is flooding into the country from Mexico and China.

Finally,  in February , Carr also joined 13 attorneys general in calling for the resignation of U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his refusal to enforce the law and secure the border.