The Biden administration is set to terminate the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11, 2023, over three years after former President Donald Trump first declared it, a White House statement read Monday.
The White House statement argued against proposed Republican legislation aiming to end the public health emergency (PHE) immediately. Instead, the country needs time to prepare for the effects of ending the emergency, including the “chaos” it would cause for health care and the end of Title 42, it argued.
The sudden end of the PHE would create “wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system” as the emergency allowed the Medicaid program to operate “under special rules to provide extra funding to states,” the statement read.
The end of the PHE will also terminate the use of Title 42 at the border, a measure allowing officials to rapidly expel migrants due to public health concerns, the statement continued. (RELATED: Biden Admin Could End Trump-Era Border Expulsion Order In May)
EL PASO, TEXAS – DECEMBER 22: Immigrants warm to a fire at dawn after spending the night outside next to the U.S.-Mexico border fence on December 22, 2022 in El Paso, Texas. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
The administration has attempted to get rid of the Trump-era border policy, but was blocked by the Supreme Court. The White House said the Republican legislation attempting to end the PHE would “allow thousands of migrants per day into the country.”
“The Administration supports an orderly, predictable wind-down of Title 42, with sufficient time to put alternative policies in place. But if H.R. 382 becomes law and the Title 42 restrictions end precipitously, Congress will effectively be requiring the Administration to allow thousands of migrants per day into the country immediately without the necessary policies in place,” the memo stated.
The Biden administration has experienced record-breaking numbers of migrant encounters after President Joe Biden ended the construction of the wall at the border. December was the highest month on record for migrant encounters, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recording over 250,000 migrant encounters.