Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s worry growing with Biden administration as Title 42 end nears

PHOENIX — U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona isn’t getting answers from the Biden administration on how the end of Title 42 will affect her home state, a growing worry with the policy set to end next month.

Sinema told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Gaydos and Chad Show on Wednesday that she asked Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in their most recent call for specific numbers on the expected surge of migrants and how that increase will be handled once the COVID-related border policy that limits asylum-seekers’ entry to the country ends May 11.

Arizona’s senior senator said Mayorkas couldn’t provide figures.

“The reality is that we don’t have a partner at the [Biden] administration in DHS or the White House that is preparing in a way to deal with this crisis that Arizonans can depend on or feel good about,” Sinema said.

Sinema expects immigration woes to get “categorically worse” once Title 42 ends, concerns she expressed at a subcommittee hearing on the border Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

Arizona border leaders were also in attendance for the hearing to speak on how the policy’s conclusion would affect their communities.

“It was my hope that through their stories, through their experiences, through their calls for action that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle would begin to recognize that this is not a political football,” Sinema said.

“This is actually about the impact on our border communities and a humanitarian crisis for those migrants themselves.”

With time dwindling, Sinema said she’s going to keep seeking answers from the Biden administration.

“I’m going to continue hounding them to get these answers,” Sinema said. “But it leaves me with the continued feeling … that they do not have a plan.”

Follow @KTAR923