Texas governor Greg Abbott announced that his administration would be taking measures to curtail undocumented immigrants from entering the United States given the end of Title 42.
“The Biden Administration’s open-border policies have paved the way for dangerous cartels and deadly drugs to pour into the United States, and this crisis will only be made worse by ending Title 42 expulsions…With the end of Title 42 expulsions looming next month, Texas will immediately begin taking unprecedented action to do what no state has done in American history to secure our border”, said Governor Abbott.
Title 42 expulsions refer to the part of the U.S. code which has been used to expel immigrants at the border during the pandemic. It is important to note that Title 42 also prevented asylum seekers from entering the United States. It is estimated that Title 42 has caused 1.7 million immigrants and asylum seekers to be expelled since the order was implemented in March 2020. The CDC announced that the order would be terminated due to the state of the pandemic and that it was no longer necessary.
In protest to the end of Title 42, Texas has been bussing migrants across the country to Washington D.C., which was the “unprecedented action” that the press release was referring to.
The capitalist class benefit from the exploitation of undocumented immigrant labor and frequently drum up anti-immigrant sentiment to scapegoat the failures of the capitalist system. Governor Abbott brags about utilizing blockades and razor wire in an effort to stop immigration. However, these immigrants make up 4.4% of the U.S. workforce and are used and abused by the U.S. capitalist class in their relentless pursuit of maximum profitability. The capitalist class utilizes anti-immigrant sentiment to direct the frustration and anger of the working masses onto other workers instead of onto the oligarchs who reap the benefits from the capitalist economic arrangement.