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Like his fellow Republicans, U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Atascocita) believes the recent end of Title 42 will exacerbate the ongoing situation at the country’s southern border with Mexico, Houston FOX affiliate KRIV reported.
Title 42 was implemented during the Trump administration at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to authorize the swift removal of migrants at the U.S.’s border with Mexico.
Crenshaw, whose congressional district covers parts of northern and eastern Harris County and southern Montgomery County, expressed his frustration toward the U.S. House of Representatives’ failure to approve House Resolution (HR) 2, or the Secure the Border Act of 2023, according to KRIV.
The federal legislator said the U.S. Senate could give it life, but he has doubts.
"There is no hope,” the 39-year-old Crenshaw said in the report. “There is not a single Democrat in the House who voted for it.”
He implied that with Title 42 no longer in existence, it could embolden cartels who purportedly seek to flood fentanyl into the country.
“They have operational control of our border and they are a clear danger to the American people,” the congressman told the station. “They are directly responsible … I plan to do everything in my power to make this a bipartisan effort because it has to be that is the only way it works."
Crenshaw agreed with Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s assertion that the country’s fourth-largest city isn’t well equipped to assist a growing migrant community, KRIV reported.
Reuters reported that U.S. officials warned on Monday that migrants who illegally cross the border will be subject to “tougher consequences” now that Title 42 has expired.
According to Reuters, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said illegal border crossings declined since Friday.
Those caught at the border face “a minimum five-year bar on reentry” and could be criminally prosecuted “if they try again,” DHS official Blas Nunez-Neto said, Reuters reported.