Biden ends Trump-era asylum curbs amid border-region Democrat backlash

Joe Biden will next month end a controversial pandemic-related expulsion policy that effectively closed America’s asylum system at its border with Mexico, it was announced on Friday.

The decision to lift the Title 42 public health order, which will take effect on 23 May, is seen as long overdue by immigration advocates who regard the order as inhumane. But it was seized on by Republicans and some electorally vulnerable Democrats, who warned of chaos at the border.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which issued Title 42 in March 2020 in response to the coronavirus outbreak, said it was no longer needed.“After considering current public health conditions and an increased availability of tools to fight Covid-19 (such as highly effective vaccines and therapeutics), the CDC director has determined that an order suspending the right to introduce migrants into the United States is no longer necessary,” the CDC said.

Since Title 42 went into effect under Donald Trump, migrants have been expelled more than 1.7m times. Biden kept Title 42 after taking office in January

2021 despite campaign promises to reverse Trump’s immigration policies.

Many Democrats, medical experts and the UN have condemned Title 42, arguing it expels migrants to danger in Mexico and that scientific evidence does not support its goal of limiting virus spread. They welcomed Friday’s announcement.

Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said: “This is a momentous day for immigrant rights activists and immigrants and refugees everywhere. Title 42 was a cruel and discriminatory policy that circumvented US law, preventing people from accessing protections established by Congress.

“Today is the product of years of advocacy from both inside and outside Congress. I’m thrilled to see the Biden administration do the right and moral thing by ending this extremely harmful, xenophobic and shortsighted policy that disproportionately impacted Black and brown migrants.”

Congresswoman Cori Bush of Missouri, who has urged Biden to review the disparate treatment of Black migrants under Title 42, said: “This racist, inhumane relic from the Trump era has been devastating for migrants fleeing persecution, war, poverty, climate catastrophe and violence in their home countries and who have been forced to

Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona: ‘This is a crisis, and in my estimation, because of a lack of planning from the administration, it’s about to get worse.’