Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) joined U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in introducing the Securing the Homeland from International Entrants with Life-threatening Diseases (SHIELD) Act to codify the Trump administration’s public health order under Title 42 that required U.S. border officials to promptly remove illegal immigrants to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) also cosponsored the new legislation, which prevents the Biden Administration from ending another successful Trump Administration immigration policy and worsening the border crisis.
“The Biden Administration’s dangerous open border policies have created a moral crisis on our Southern Border. President Biden has an obligation to address the issue he’s created, but instead, he wants to end Title 42 and eliminate one of the few remaining tools we have from the Trump Administration to secure our border,” said Senator Hawley. “As our country recovers from the pandemic, we should absolutely retain the ability to turn away those crossing our border illegally who pose a threat to the health of American citizens.”
“Title 42 has been an integral and extremely successful measure to protect America’s borders and our people during the COVID-19 pandemic. If the Biden-Harris policy for open borders is intended to reverse the Trump Administration’s success in securing our border, encourage illegal immigration, and create an unprecedented crisis, it’s certainly working,” said Senator Cruz “As we come out of the COVID-19 global pandemic, we need to continue securing our borders, not throwing open flood gates to people who could carry the deadly virus or its dangerous new variants.”
Companion legislation has also been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. For Senate bill text, click here.
