Don’s COVID border oder on last legs
WH looks to end Trump public-health policy
Amid a record-smashing surge of illegal immigration to the United States involving upward of 170,000 crossers a month, President Biden is considering ending a public-health order that allows US border officials to turn away migrant families in Mexico, according to a report.
Title 42 — the policy established through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prevent COVID-19 from hitting the United States — allows Customs and Border Protection to expel migrants to avoid the virus’ spread in holding facilities.
The order, enacted by then-President Donald Trump in March 2020, has not been reversed by Biden despite pressure from immigration activists, human-rights groups and the American Civil Liberties Union.
But Biden is considering ending the order — which has resulted in tens of thousands of migrant family members being sent away — as early as July 31, Axios reported Monday.
Top CDC officials have voiced their opposition to using the order as a mechanism to conduct immigration policy, and top administration officials have suggested to Biden that he seize the moment by ending it.
Administration officials have argued that permitting the ACLU to sue over the policy would force the Justice Department to defend a Trump-era rule.
The ACLU placed a temporary hold on lawsuits regarding the expulsion of migrant families as the new administration decides how it will move forward on the policy. The nonprofit organization has been in negotiations with Biden on the issue.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
In a statement to Axios, a White House official said it is “a public health decision that will be made ultimately on those grounds.” They added that the administration would not get ahead of any CDC determinations.
The Biden administration’s undoing of Trump’s border policies has prompted a flood of Central American and Mexican illegal migrants at the US border, including thousands of unescorted children.
Central Americans looking for refuge from the Northern Triangle countries — Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — have taken these policy moves, as well as the overwhelmingly more welcoming tone from Democrats, as a sign that Biden is inviting them to cross the border.
Insisting that the border was not facing a crisis, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in early March that the problems the agency faced should be blamed on the previous administration.
The data, however, overwhelmingly show that migrants are flooding the border because they believe Biden will welcome them with open arms.
Several leaders in Central America and Mexico have spoken out to blame the Biden administration for the crisis.