End shameful health policy that targets immigrants
Title 42 is a bipartisan disgrace.
While the Trump administration ushered in Title 42 as a novel way to expel migrants during the pandemic, the Biden administration has maintained it.
That may change — or should change — thanks to a recent ruling by a federal appeals court that limits the abuse of this obscure public health rule, which has left migrants and asylum-seekers in precarious and dangerous situations at the U.s.mexico border.
The Trump administration used Title 42 to bar entry for asylum-seekers and immigrants under the pretense of concerns about the spread of COVID-19. For many, the hope was this “policy” would change with the Biden administration. However, faced with a surge of migrants at the U.s.-mexico border, officials instead have said it falls to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to decide when to end Title 42, and so it has continued. As the New York Times has reported, “Since the order was put in place in March 2020, more than 181,000 migrant families have been expelled under it.”
These families have either returned to the dangerous and hopeless conditions they were fleeing, or they have waited in perilous conditions at the U.s.-mexico border.
In its ruling, the panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit brings these atrocious conditions into high relief: “For now, the executive may expel the plaintiffs, but only to places where they will not be persecuted or tortured.”
It’s amazing such a sentence had to be written — don’t expel migrants to places where they will be tortured or persecuted — or that such a standard had to be established through the courts. Hence, the bipartisan shame of Title 42.
Beyond this, Title 42 plays into the long-standing trope that immigrants bring disease. When, in fact, as the New York Times reported, many public health experts have said this application of Title 42 has no public health benefit. After all, many immigrant families have been allowed into the United States — the 181,000 families expelled under Title 42 since March 2020 represent about 25 percent of total families apprehended at the border during that time. Beyond that, there has been plenty of homegrown COVID here. And let’s not forget, we can address COVID through testing and vaccines. There is no reason to expel migrants over COVID concerns when the federal government could test for COVID and then offer vaccination while the asylum process plays out.
While Title 42 is a cruel response to the issue of immigration, its implementation underscores the need for comprehensive immigration reform. Meaningful reform would honor and expand the asylum process, bolster security along the U.s.mexico border, offer a pathway to citizenship for so-called Dreamers, invest in the Northern Triangle nations of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to address root causes of immigration, and bring stability to that region.
The Biden administration did roll out such a comprehensive plan in January 2021 — a plan we praised — but it has, predictably, gone nowhere in this hyper-politicized environment. At the same time, Title 42 has endured, as has a lesser version of the “Remain in Mexico” policy.
There should be a renewed sense of urgency to end Title 42. In a separate ruling last week, a federal district judge in North Texas ordered the Biden administration to stop exempting unaccompanied migrant children from Title 42.
Title 42 is a stain on this administration and this nation. End it.