Press Releases

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2022 — This week, Congressman Mike Johnson (LA-04) and Congressman Jodey C. Arrington (TX-19) filed an amicus brief with 52 Members of Congress and the Texas Public Policy Foundation in support of the Title 42 injunction lawsuit filed by Louisiana, Arizona, and Missouri Attorneys General.  

“The Biden Administration has announced that it will likely try to reverse a federal judge’s decision to end mask mandates on airplanes while simultaneously repealing Title 42 public health restrictions allowing illegal immigrants to flow freely across our southern border,” said Rep. Mike Johnson (LA-04). “President Biden’s continued intentional destruction of our country at the expense of our own people must stop. I am proud to lead this effort alongside Representative Arrington and dozens of our colleagues in support of this case to reverse the administration’s purposefully destructive decision.”

“Biden’s decision to end Title 42 - the last effective measure for securing our border - is a complete surrender of the sovereignty of our nation, an abandonment of border states, and a total failure to protect the American people,” said Rep. Jodey Arrington (TX-19). “I am proud to lead the effort for Members of Congress to join states who rightfully assert, as a matter of policy and law, that mandating COVID restrictions on US citizens while giving illegal immigrants a free pass is unlawful, unconscionable, and outrageous.”

“CDC’s decision is not just a disastrous policy that threatens public safety, but it is also unlawful because CDC failed to offer a reasoned explanation for it,” said Robert Henneke, Executive Director and General Counsel for TPPF. “CDC unlawfully failed to consider the current border crisis, much less explain how a future migrant surge would impact CDC’s COVID-19 mitigation strategies.”

“CDC’s decision to terminate its Title 42 policies is inconsistent with its previous findings regarding the need to avoid overcrowding of detention facilities,” said Autumn Hamit Patterson, Senior Attorney for TPPF. “Agencies are not permitted to do this sort of about-face without adequate justification, which CDC wholly failed to provide.”

Background: 

• Although CDC and other federal agencies argue that a whole host of COVID-19 restrictions on U.S. citizens are essential to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, CDC changes its tune about the necessity of COVID-19 restrictions when it comes to stemming the flow of illegal migrants on the southern border.  This inconsistency is unjustifiable not only as a matter of policy, but also as a matter of law. 

• The termination decision will Exacerbate the current border crisis and harm the public.
• This past year, we saw a record 100,000 drug overdoses. 
• In FY 2021, CBP seized over 10,000 pounds of fentanyl – fentanyl crossing the border accounts for approximately two out of every three fentanyl-related deaths.
• DHS Office of Intelligence anticipates that one million migrants could cross the southern border within the first six weeks of Title 42 ending.
• This is an anticipated surge of 18,000 migrants per day

• CDC impermissibly failed to consider the current border crisis and the impact of a further migrant surge and failed to adequately explain its policy reversal:
• CBP could reach full capacity within a few days of Title 42 ending and be forced to release illegal immigrants into the U.S.
• We’re already seeing the release of illegal immigrants into U.S. communities across the country—this will be exacerbated when Title 42 ends.

• The brief also underscores the following:
• The Biden Administration does not have an actual plan in place to prevent the surge in illegal immigration. 
• CDC’s actions create inequitable treatment of migrants to the detriment of U.S. citizens.  

Read the full text of the brief here.

Congressman Johnson is the Vice Chairman of the House Republican Conference, a member of the House Judiciary and Armed Services Committees, and a former constitutional law litigator.