Lankford Calls Out DHS for Conflicting Information on Title 42 Termination

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calling out a major lack of transparency regarding the expected migrant surge following the termination of Title 42.

 DHS has Shared Conflicting Information with Congress

“DHS recently shared 25 pages of information with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) regarding its efforts to ‘secure and ensure order at the southwest border.’ Buried within that information, DHS stated: ‘The metric of 18,000 encounters per day was designed for planning purposes to describe a scenario in which termination of Title 42 on a target date would cause encounters of noncitizens from numerous countries to surge to levels beyond the highest ever observed. It does not reflect the number of encounters CBP anticipates seeing.’ This information appears to contradict all prior public statements made by DHS officials regarding the migration surge that will occur after the Title 42 order is terminated, including statements made under oath by DHS officials during Congressional hearings on Title 42’s termination.”

DHS Failed to be Forthright About the Impact of Title 42’s Termination

“For the reasons above, I am very concerned that DHS has not been forthright with me and with Congress its projections of the surge that will occur when Title 42 is terminated and its enforcement posture moving forward. DHS has yet to brief Congress regarding its plans on December 21, 2022, leaving us with a series of contradictory statements and vague policy initiatives to rely on while the border careens toward a truly historic crisis. DHS has had an additional six months to plan for the termination of Title 42 during the intervening litigation, but we have not heard a word about how DHS has used the additional time to plan for Title 42’s termination.”

View letter here