NEWS: Congressman Greg Casar Co-Leads Bicameral Coalition of Nearly 80 Lawmakers in Pushing Back Against the Biden Administration’s Expansion of Title 42 and Proposed Asylum Transit Ban

WASHINGTON — Today, Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas) co-led a bicameral coalition of nearly 80 lawmakers in sending a letter to President Joe Biden, pushing back against the Administration’s expansion of Title 42 and proposed asylum transit ban, while supporting Biden’s expansion of some legal pathways to asylum.

READ THE FULL LETTER

C-SPAN: THURSDAY PRESS CONFERENCE

“The expansion of Title 42 and the transit ban will not solve this humanitarian crisis,” said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas). “People fleeing for their lives to this country need safe and legal pathways to asylum. Right-wing officials will continue to attack the Biden Administration regardless of public policy at the border, so we should do the right thing regardless of their fear mongering.”

“Democrats must lead on comprehensive immigration reform, because Republican officials are committed to keeping the system broken for their own political benefit. The last time Congress came up with major legislation on immigration, I wasn’t even born yet. We must ignore the cynics and do the work of solving this humanitarian crisis.” 

During the press conference, Casarrecounted the tragic deaths of fathers, mothers, grandparents, and children who were abandoned in a tractor trailer in the summer heat in San Antonio last year. They died seeking better lives, and were failed by the country’s broken immigration system. 

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.-14), alongside Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas-35), and Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.-07) co-led the letter. 

“The administration’s announced border enforcement actions circumvent [domestic and international] law by not only expanding Title 42 beyond what is required by any court but by further implementing policies to deter and penalize people exercising their legal right to seek asylum at the border,” wrote the bicameral group of lawmakers to President Biden. “…We are therefore distressed by the deeply inconsistent choice to expand restrictions on asylum seekers after your administration determined it was no longer necessary for public health. Title 42 circumvents domestic law and international law. Human rights groups have extensively documented more than 10,000 violent attacks – including kidnappings, serious assaults, and deaths – against individuals who were expelled to or blocked in Mexico due to Title 42 since the beginning of your administration, with a disproportionate impact on Black, Brown, LGBTQ+, and Indigenous migrants.

“It is unconscionable that asylum seekers have no option but to sleep in the streets of El Paso, in overcrowded shelters in Juarez, or in tents in Reynosa, but new asylum restrictions against migrants will not solve this problem. We believe that your administration can and must continue to expand legal pathways for migrants and refugees into the United States – without further dismantling the right to seek asylum at our border.” 

Joining Sens. Menendez, Booker, Luján, and Padilla in signing the letter in the Senate are Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.). Joining Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Casar, and Grijalva in signing the letter in the House are Reps. Jesús G. "Chuy" García (D-Ill.-04), Juan Vargas (D-Calif.-52), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.-12), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.-13), Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.-44), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.-12), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.-09), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.-16), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.-At-Large), Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.-07), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.-04), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.-09), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas-29), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.-07), Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.-29), Judy Chu (D-Calif.-28), Lou Correa (D-Calif.-46), Cori Bush (D-Mo.-01), Grace Meng (D-N.Y.-06), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.-10), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.-12), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.-20), Joaquin Castro (D-Texas-20), Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.-24), Adam Smith (D-Wash.-09), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.-05), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.-13), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.02), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.-11), Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.-34), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.-04), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.-03), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine-01), Dwight Evans (D-Penn.-03), Becca Balint (D-Vt.-At-Large), Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.-31), Mark Takano (D-Calif.-39), Frank Pallone (D-N.J.-06), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.-42), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.-04), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.-03), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.-07), Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.-03), Norma Torres (D-Calif.-35), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.-10), Rob Menendez (D-N.J.-08), Danny Davis (D-Ill.-07), Donald Payne Jr. (D-N.J.-10), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.-37), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.-02), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.-30), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.-36), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii-02), Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.-15), Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.-38), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.-03), Alma Adams (D-N.C.-12), Lori Trahan (D-Mass.-03), Katie Porter (D-Calif.-47), and Summer Lee (D-Penn.-12). 

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Congressman Greg Casar represents Texas’s 35th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which runs down I-35 from East Austin to Hays County to the West Side of San Antonio.  A labor organizer and son of Mexican immigrants, Casar serves as the Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for the 118th Congress.