The Joe Biden government is considering ending Title 42, a public health order approved by former President Donald Trump a year ago to deny the vast majority of migrants the right to asylum due to the risk of transmission of the pandemic from coronavirus.
Title 42 has been used to return tens of thousands of migrant families at the border.
According to the Axios news portal, the president, Joe Biden, has been informed about the plan to end the use of this policy
as of July 31
, or allow a court to terminate it.
63% of all migrants intercepted at the border have been expelled expeditiously and without the right to seek asylum under Title 42, in total,
more than 111,000 migrants,
most of them adults traveling alone, although this figure also includes families
[Thousands of migrant minors are crammed into "emergency" shelters with little supervision and little care]
Trump sealed the borders at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, claiming that the arrival of asylum seekers increased the risk of contagion for the American population.
Title 42 is still in effect, but after his arrival at the White House
Biden did begin to allow the entry of unaccompanied minors, families and immigrants at risk for health and violence reasons.
More than 150 families gather at the border to embrace and demand solutions for their struggle
June 19, 202101: 28
Sources from the Department of Homeland Security told Noticias Telemundo in April that
Title 42 allowed them to make exceptions for humanitarian reasons,
thus explaining the admission of migrant families at the border.
In his first months in office, Biden thus faced a sharp increase in the arrival of unaccompanied minors: if in October 2020 there were a thousand who tried to cross, in January there were 5,800 and
in March almost 19,000.
The Axios report notes that top officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and doctors who serve as consultants to the Department of Homeland Security
have opposed the use of Title 42 to expel migrants. .
Central American migrants, who came to the United States illegally from Mexico to seek asylum, disembark from an inflatable boat after crossing the Rio Grande before turning themselves in to Border Patrol agents in the border city of Rome on March 29, 2021. Ed Jones / AFP via Getty Images
At the end of April, the Biden administration continued to ensure that it had no immediate intention of ending Title 42, despite pressure from pro-immigrant activist groups, since
more than 100 million people in the country are already fully vaccinated and coronavirus infections continue to fall
steadily.
"The border is not open, and we will continue expelling individuals and families," a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security told Noticias Telemundo, although she admitted that they continue to "work continuously" to "improve the process for exceptions to Title 42 for humanitarian reasons. "in collaboration with the CDC.
When Vice President Kamala Harris was asked in an interview with Noticias Telemundo last week whether Title 42 will continue to be a cornerstone of Washington's immigration policy, Harris responded: "The world is still in the middle of the pandemic." but "
Title 42 was never intended to be permanent."
