Manchin opposed to Biden plan to drop Title 42 at border

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is urging the Biden administration to rethink plans to rescind Title 42 amid reports the White House plans to unwind the Trump-era policy allowing for rapid expulsions at the border while barring migrants from seeking asylum.

Numerous outlets reported Wednesday that the administration plans to rescind the order in some capacity by May 23 — plans Manchin told reporters at the Capitol Thursday that he thinks they should drop

“Oh my goodness. Just watch the news y’all put out every day, what’s coming across,” Machin said.

Manchin had previously expressed his opposition to lifting Title 42 — making him one of just a handful of Democrats to do so as President Biden largely faces pressure from within his party to scrap what many see as an illegal and inhumane policy.

“With encounters along our southern border surging and the highly-transmissible Omicron BA.2 subvariant emerging as the dominate strain in the United States, now is not the time to throw caution to the wind,” Manchin wrote in a Tuesday letter to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky.

“I urge you to again renew this commonsense policy that has been in effect—under both Republican and Democratic Administrations—since March 2020.”

The letter urged Walensky to extend the policy after the CDC said it would review the policy through March 30.

Other Democrats, meanwhile, have offered sharper criticism of Biden for maintaining the policy.

“As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxes it domestic COVID-19 protocols, it is perplexing that the agency continues to recommend the extended use of this draconian policy at the border, contradicting the overwhelming signs of America’s pandemic recovery under President Biden’s leadership,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) wrote in a letter earlier this month alongside Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

“As we have clearly reminded President Biden, we have a moral imperative to live by our values.”