‘I don’t like Title 42’: Biden slams Supreme Court for trying to curb border crisis

The response came into a question from a reporter, who asked why "now is finally the right time to visit the southern border. Republicans have been calling on you to do this —"

Biden interrupted by saying, "because Republicans haven’t been serious about this at all, come on. They haven’t been serious about this at all."

"I wanted to make sure that I knew what the outcome or at least the near outcome was on Title 42 before I went down, we don’t have that yet, so I had to operate — I don’t like Title 42."

"But it’s the law and now we have to operate within it. My prediction is… Title 42 is going to go away before the end of the year in terms of the Supreme Court, my prediction," Biden added, saying that when Title 42 is removed, the administration will have to use Title 8 to process illegal immigrants.

"But so I wanted to make sure there was a rational way in which we can begin to announce it, but I couldn’t wait once the Supreme Court rule that they’re not going to make the final decision on Title 42 for some time, for another who knows, probably not til June."

The speech comes ahead of Biden’s first visit to the border during his administration. Shortly before leaving for Arizona last month, Biden told reports there were "more important things going on" preventing him from visiting the border during the trip.

According to US Customs and Border Patrol data, both October and November of fiscal year 2023 have surpassed last year’s historic highs, with 231,294 and 233,740 people being encountered by Border Patrol agents, respectively.

The number of migrants illegally crossing the border has already surpassed the total number of encounters seen in 2020, when Title 42 was enacted by the Trump administration amid the early days of the pandemic.

The Biden administration has repeatedly tried to get Title 42 removed, but in December, the Supreme Court halted its removal.