Warner: ‘Very Worried’ Border Will ‘Be Overwhelmed’ Without Title 42, I Wouldn’t End It without a Plan, and I Haven’t Heard One

On Wednesday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) stated that he would be “very reluctant” to end Title 42 until there’s a “real plan in place” and that he hasn’t heard of a plan like that from the Biden administration. Warner also said he’s “very worried” about the prospect “that the border would be overwhelmed,” and that “opening the floodgates at the borders would not be the appropriate plan until we have a process to deal with that.”

Warner said, “I would be very reluctant for the administration to end this Trump policy until they had a real plan in place. I think we are a generous country, but we have to have — we have to be a country of rule of law. We have processes where we’ve taken in the Afghan refugees, the Ukrainian refugees, but I would be very worried about this notion that the border would be overwhelmed, and I really want to hear a specific plan with adequate personnel. And frankly, I would like to see the State Department do more pressure on some of the countries, particularly the Northern Triangle countries, to try to stop the flow of some of these economic refugees.”

Co-host Alisyn Camerota then asked, “Have you heard any plan like that?”

Warner responded, “I have not to date. But I know that my colleagues — two of my Democratic colleagues from Arizona, who are much more on, literally, the front line on this are asking for those kind of details and I will join with them in wanting to see those details before you suddenly could have overwhelming numbers come across, overwhelming numbers that aren’t going through a legal process. Again, let’s — I go back to where I started my answer, though, our country is as generous, if not more generous than any nation. … But opening the floodgates at the borders would not be the appropriate plan until we have a process to deal with that. And frankly, we need strong borders here. Let me be clear, I am not someone for…any kind of open border process.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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