Here & Now

US Rep. Tom Tiffany on Lifting Pandemic Immigration Policy

Frederica Freyberg:

New COVID 19 cases are steadily rising again in Wisconsin, and across the country. The new climb has prompted Milwaukee Public Schools to reinstate its mask requirement. This as a federal judge this week removed the nationwide mask mandate for all public transportation. Now it is up to individual cities, counties, and airlines to decide if passengers should be required to mask up to prevent the spread of COVID 19. And another pandemic-driven federal policy is set to end. Immigration restrictions that effectively close the U.S. border with Mexico to incoming migrants. The policy, known as Title 42, allows the Centers for Disease Control to severely limit immigration, even for those seeking asylum to prevent the spread of disease. Put in place by former president Donald Trump, it is now set to end under Joe Biden. Our first guest tonight recently visited the southern border and wants the restriction to remain in place. Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany from Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district joins us from Wausau. Thanks very much for being here.

Tom Tiffany:

It’s good to join you, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you traveled to the southern U.S. border with Mexico this month. And wanted to talk with us about it. Why?

Tom Tiffany:

Actually just this week, I went down to the Yuma sector, and I think the thing that was striking is that I was there about two years ago under the previous administration. We saw with local, state, and federal officials they were working together quite well and really had made progress in controlling the number of people that are coming into the country illegally. Now, as you go to places like Yuma, you see it’s really very much out of control at this point. And people coming into the country that just really almost willy nilly. We’re seeing got-aways that exceed in the hundreds of thousands besides the two million people that came in illegally in 2021. And if Title 42 goes away, it is going to be a tidal wave because there are thousands of migrants just waiting on the other side of the border, and the cartels in Mexico are ready to deliver them to the United States.

Frederica Freyberg:

Why should the COVID public health policy that closed the border to asylum seekers though, be maintained when everything else is opened up?

Tom Tiffany:

You know you look at the Biden administration is going to contest the mask mandate being struck down in courts. They’re going to contest it. Yet so they want the mask mandates on airplanes, why would they not want to keep COVID restrictions in place for those that are trying to enter our country illegally. I think it’s inconsistent on the part of the administration.

Frederica Freyberg:

We know immigration is a key political focus of Republicans but is the party trading on fear and dislike of people from other countries, particularly Central America or Mexico?

Tom Tiffany:

I would urge people to go down to the southern border and see really what’s happening and talk to the border patrol, what’s going on. Just this morning, a border patrol agent drown in the Rio Grande trying to save someone coming across the border illegally. We’re seeing these types of things happen regularly. This has huge national security concerns, besides the two million people that came in illegally last year, there were hundreds of thousands of got-aways. Are some of those terrorists? Do they have terror backgrounds? That’s really of a great concern for those that are concerned about national security. But on top of that, you have all the drugs that are flowing in. The amount of methamphetamine, and fentanyl that is pouring into our country, that has increased exponentially here since January 20 of 2021 when President Biden took the restrictions off from the southern border, in particular “Remain in Mexico.” It’s killing people throughout America. And all you have to do is talk to your local sheriffs here in Wisconsin and they’ll tell you the stories about the fentanyl and methamphetamine deaths that are happening here in our state.

Frederica Freyberg:

It’s not all people who are members of a drug cartel or drug traffickers though. I mean, we understand that many of these people seeking asylum in the United States are coming from very difficult circumstances in Central America. What would you do if you were trying to protect yourself or our family from poverty or crime in your home country?

Tom Tiffany:

Well, when I was in Yuma this week, I happened to see some people just coming across the Colorado River and giving themselves up to the border patrol to be processed. To be sent into America, via a bus and then airplane to various states around the country. And I saw a man from India. A man from Columbia, amongst others and they were dressed just like Americans. They were not — I mean you could tell it was not legitimate asylum seekers. All you have to do is go back to “Remain in Mexico,” which was in place before January 20, of 2021. I believe it was about 95% of the asylum seekers who had to remain in Mexico to have their hearing held were declined because they were not legitimate asylees. When I was down in Panama a year ago, we heard from many Haitians and Cubans that they had been living in countries like Chile and Brazil for years. And we asked them why would you come now? Because the border is open. Their lives were okay at that point. They’re not legitimate asylum seekers. We should only let those in that have a legitimate claim.

Frederica Freyberg:

What about Ukrainians now fleeing the war? Do you welcome them?

Tom Tiffany:

If you go back to Afghanistan last August, I was very critical of the administration and how they handled that. We should not — most of those people did not go through the special immigrant vias process to be able to process them for terror backgrounds. I would say the same in regards to the Ukrainians. We should not simply be allowing people to come in on parole because that’s what Secretary Mayorkas is doing. He’s using an authority called parole. Parole is meant to be used on an individual basis. He is taking masses of people, like from Afghanistan, like Ukraine and saying we’re just going to pass you into America via parole. Parole not meant to be used that way. Furthermore, if you take those people away from Europe, just like we took the people out of Afghanistan, many of them would resettle back into their home countries once things settled down. This may be the best thing that Vladimir Putin wants, is for the Ukrainians to abandon their homeland and go to another country halfway across the world with very little prospect of them coming back to the Ukraine.

Frederica Freyberg:

So is your answer to that no? That you are not welcoming Ukrainians?

Tom Tiffany:

If they have a legitimate claim, but they need to be done on an individual basis. No different than the Afghans and others that request this. If you are going to use parole, it is in the law that it’s done on an individual basis, not a mass settlement like the administration is using. They’re distorting the law at this point.

Frederica Freyberg:

We need to leave it there. Thank you. Our time is up. Congressman Tiffany, thanks very much.

Tom Tiffany:

Thanks for having me on tonight.