(Headline USA) New Mexico’s Democratic governor is asking that the Biden administration delay planned or expanded efforts to transport migrants to her state if pandemic-related restrictions on asylum seekers are lifted.
The federal government has predicted a threefold increase in border crossings if that happens, and first-term Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Tuesday an influx of migrants would dramatically affect the border state’s capacity to provide ongoing humanitarian assistance to thousands of New Mexico residents displaced by historic wildfires this spring.
Grisham, who is up for re-election this year, already faces an uphill battle against an expected red-wave election and the stain of a recent sex scandal after she was accused of drunkenly fondling the crotch of a suborinate in her office.
During the Trump administration, she notoriously refused to allow the National Guard to offer support to Border Patrol amid an influx of illegal-immigrant caravans.
But Grisham outlined her newfound concerns over the Biden administration’s open-borders policy in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, saying that flaws in the immigration system need to be addressed and that public safety and health are paramount.
She went on to say that she doesn’t believe the department can adequately address the concerns if existing limitations on migrant entry are lifted.
“New Mexico (and other border states) will bear the brunt of adverse economic and social impacts that are likely to arise from the influx of migrants without additional planning on the part of the federal government,” Lujan Grisham wrote. “I cannot allow this.”
A federal judge last month blocked the Biden administration’s plan to lift the migrant restrictions, ordering that they stay in place while a lawsuit led by Arizona and Louisiana—and now joined by 22 other states—plays out in court.
Migrants have been expelled more than 1.9 million times since March 2020 under Title 42.
Aside from ruling that the Biden administration failed to follow administrative procedures requiring public notice and time to gather public comment, the judge cited predictions that ending the restrictions would likely increase border crossings to as many as 18,000 daily.
That, the judge noted, would result in more migrants being processed in congregate settings where contagious disease can be spread.
The New Mexico governor’s office did not say how many migrants the state could expect if restrictions were lifted.
The issue is expected to be part of the debate ahead of the November election, when Lujan Grisham will face GOP challenger Mark Ronchetti.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
