Letter to President Biden Regarding End of Title 42

President Joseph R. Biden Jr. 

The White House 

1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW 

Washington, DC 20500

President Biden:

As a Maricopa County Supervisor, I write you out of concern for the potentially devastating impact of the imminent lifting of Title 42, on Maricopa County and throughout Arizona. A lack of transparency and a clearly communicated plan regarding the lifting of a pandemic-era health rule indicates to me that Maricopa County must assume a burden that will have a detrimental impact on our communities, non-profit organizations, and local governments.

Border states and their communities bear the brunt of a broken immigration system. Your administration has procrastinated and failed to deliver a policy that streamlines due process, addresses security concerns, and preserves human dignity. The lack of communication and information from your administration indicates to me that Maricopa County and other communities in Arizona will be shouldered with an outsized public safety, economic, and humanitarian burden in the coming weeks and months.

It is the federal government’s responsibility, under your administration, to prepare for the influx of people headed to Arizona. Many of these people will most likely make their way to Maricopa County and the County will be called upon to address the challenge of managing larger numbers of migrants in a safe and humane manner. Not having properly communicated plans from the federal government, ahead of an anticipated surge in migration, will make an already dire situation demonstrably worse. This is problematic, at the very least on a good-governance level, and, at worst, it is a humanitarian crisis in the making.

The Biden administration had two years to work with border states to develop and deliver an efficient, coherent and compassionate plan to lifting Title 42. Sadly, it does not appear that much has been done to address the immediate issues concerning the reasonable possibility that the lifting of Title 42 will create an unmanageable burden on local authorities. Unfortunately, for Arizona generally, and Maricopa County specifically, the federal government is needlessly creating a humanitarian issue with very real consequences for the economy and security on our communities which are still reeling from the social impact of the pandemic.

Maricopa County’s cities, towns, and communities need and deserve to be safe and secure, and migrants should be treated fairly and humanely. Additional emergency resources will be needed to ensure this happens. Maricopa County residents, indeed, all of Arizona’s residents, deserve nothing less from your administration.

Sincerely, 

Thomas Galvin

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, District 2 

CC: 

The Honorable Lloyd Austin III, Secretary, Department of Defense 

The Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security

The Honorable Deanne Criswell, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency