President Trump’s WH Press Secretary Includes Title 42 Among Likely ‘Day One’ Priorities

When President Donald Trump returns to the White House next month, Americans are expecting him to crack down on the nation’s porous southern border.

One of the primary ways he is likely to start that task is by reimplementing some of his first-term policies that were subsequently scrubbed by the Biden administration. Title 42, the pandemic-era provision that allowed asylum seekers to be expelled from the U.S., could be among the first to be restored, as incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently explained.

According to The Hill:

“He will use the power of his pen to deliver on many of the promises he made to the American people on the campaign trail to secure our southern border, to fast-track permits for fracking, for drilling, and to also take executive action to stop some of the transgender insanity that we have seen take over this country,” Leavitt said.

Host Maria Bartiromo pressed Leavitt on what immigration-related executive action Trump plans to take.

“Well, securing the southern border, perhaps looking at Title 42. Many of these executive actions are still being considered by our policy teams and also our lawyers,” she said.

Title 42 has become a prominent topic within the broader immigration issue in recent years:

A federal judge blocked President Biden from ending Title 42.

"The hypocrisy from the left is just out of control," said @TXRandy14 on Tuesday's "National Report."

MORE: https://t.co/lRLHqE5y3t pic.twitter.com/FvyD7Z0XXb

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) April 26, 2022

Well, alrighty. Title 42 stays until February. Good news for a change. pic.twitter.com/uj2UgV0D8M

— SweetPeaBelle (@SweetPeaBell326) December 27, 2022

🚨 On the outside, looking in..here’s what awaits to arrive when title 42 ends tomorrow. 🤬 pic.twitter.com/q56KiCI0Cg

— 🔥🇺🇸 KC 🇺🇸🔥 (@KCPayTreeIt) May 10, 2023

During the election, Trump vowed to restore Title 42 at least in part to crack down on child trafficking, as Fox News reported in July:

“I will use Title 42 to end the child trafficking crisis by returning all trafficked children to their families in their home countries, without delay,” Trump said in a new campaign video posted on social media. “And I will urge Congress to ensure that anyone caught trafficking children across our border receives the death penalty immediately.”

The Title 42 public health order was implemented by the Trump administration, allowing border officials to expel migrants without granting them an asylum hearing in order to limit the spread of COVID-19. Biden rescinded the policy earlier this year.

Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, touted his record as president for improving the security of the southern border and lambasted the Biden administration for overseeing a surge of illegal immigration into the U.S.

“When I’m back in the White House, I will immediately end the Biden border nightmare that traffickers are using to exploit vulnerable women and children,” said Trump. “We will fully secure the border. I will wage war on the cartels just as I destroyed the ISIS caliphate, 100% gone, 100% destroyed.”

Here’s a clip of Trump’s response to the provision’s 2023 repeal:

President Trump SLAMS Biden for Getting Rid of Title 42 and Allowing a Massive Surge of Illegals to Cross the Border pic.twitter.com/hJiLzeA40j

— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) May 11, 2023