Biden is not backing down.
On Friday, President Biden doubled down and justified his choice to send 1,500 active-duty troops to the border on a temporary basis, as he anticipates an influx of migrants in the upcoming week.
In transcript provided by The Hill, “I’ve asked this Congress for help in terms of what they need at the border. They need more agents. They need more people to clear people. They need more action.”
According to the President, the active-duty troops are being dispatched to provide aid and support to the border agents, rather than to implement the law. It’s important to note that under federal law, active-duty troops are prohibited from directly enforcing policies.
President Biden stated that the purpose of sending the troops is to relieve the burden on the border agents who need to be present at the border, allowing them to focus on their primary duties.
“And we’re having another thousand people coming in; they are asylum judges, to make judgments to move things along,” Biden continued.
As per a statement given by a U.S. official to The Hill on Tuesday, the active-duty troops are expected to be deployed for a period of 90 days to provide aid with various tasks such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support.
President Biden’s choice to dispatch the active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border coincides with the imminent expiration of Title 42, a policy that facilitates the swift expulsion of migrants at the border and prohibits them from seeking asylum. The policy is set to expire on Thursday.
Critics of the President’s decision have expressed their dissatisfaction with the expiration of the Title 42 policy without any specific plan in place to address the situation.