Democrats’ COVID Mitigation Policies Don’t Make Sense: Rep. Markwayne Mullin

Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) in an interview with NTD's "Capitol Report" on Apr. 1, 2022. NTD/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

The U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security recently announced that it will end the health rule that allows deportation during the pandemic, Title 42, by May 23. Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Modernization and Readiness and candidate running for U.S Senate, Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said this is just another contradiction in the Democrats’ COVID policies.

Title 42 is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) order that was invoked in March 2020 under President Donald Trump to minimize the spread of COVID-19 by ensuring that only essential travel occurred at U.S. borders.

“Steve, if you can figure that one out, let me know. And I’m just going to tell you, this administration hasn’t made sense since they started it, we’re in a disaster situation to begin with,” Mullin told the host of NTD Capitol Report, Steve Lance, during a recent interview.

“But for them to say that they’re willing to end title 42 because there’s not a COVID crisis anymore, at the same time, saying there is a COVID crisis, and we needed another $15 billion dollars to combat it.”

Mullin is referring to the $15 billion in pandemic mitigation funds approved by congress but lower than the $22 billion requested by the Biden administration. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Republicans prevented more money from being allocated to the “battle against COVID”.

He said Democrats must want open borders because they know how much harm is being caused to American security and health. “I honestly for the life of me don’t understand, because it’s a national security risk. Now Pelosi gets the same briefings that I get,” said Mullin.

“And this has been the only tool left for us to … deport individuals, you’ve got to remember, deportation right now is that a 26-year low. So basically, the only tool we still have to deport individuals, these are males traveling by themselves is under Title 42,” said Mullin.

“So, a Title 42 actually gives us an opportunity to look at that background, while we’re waiting to deport them, without Title 42 a lot of these individuals are literally being released into the United States within 24 hours,” said Mullin.

Since March 2020, more than 1.7 million illegal immigrants have been expelled under the Title 42 authority, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. During the same period, just over 1.1 million were placed into Title 8  proceedings, (to determine according to U.S. immigration laws, if the person can be deported).

In February 2021, 73 percent of illegal immigrants were expelled under Title 42. By February 2022, it had been reduced to 55 percent.

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Mullin cited the CBP official saying that rescinding Title 42 would double the number of illegal immigrants that are released into the United States, and criticized Democrat policies for allowing drug cartels to smuggle in drugs while the border is overrun with immigrants.

“Once again, this administration knows that, and yet, they’re going to now flood the border, even more, when they rescind Title 42. We’re going to increase the illegal crossings by 50 percent. And it’s going to … to overrun the Border Patrol and they’re going to spend all their time trying to apprehend illegal crossers for humanitarian reasons, and at the same time, they’re just going to blow the doors wide open on even more of a drug problem that we have inside the United States.”

Charlotte Cuthbertson contributed to this report.