PROTECTING PUBLIC HEALTH NOT THE GOAL

Since March 2020, the U.S. federal government has allowed border officials to turn back anyone seeking to claim asylum in the United States by using Title 42, an emergency “public health” order issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Title 42 has cruelly and forcibly expelled asylum seekers to unsafe conditions without processing them under standard immigration laws. Officially dubbed a public health policy, this dubious edict was invoked by the Trump administration and perpetuated by the Biden administration to ostensibly mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Every day, Title 42 prevents thousands of migrants of color — whose nations of origin are primarily South and Central American countries — from seeking their human right to asylum, while those from predominantly White countries are allowed in. In practice, Title 42 is not a public health policy, but a racist antiimmigration scheme.

Under the auspices of the San Diego Rapid Response Network, UC San Diego Health has been involved with our region’s respite sheltering since December 2018, triaging and providing medical attention to all asylum seekers released into the shelter’s care by the Department of Homeland Security. Our stringent health screenings and comprehensive public health protocols work to minimize the spread of every type of communicable disease including COVID-19, which we immediately developed protocols for — and protocols we continue to employ — to protect the public’s health and provide the medical care new arrivals may need.

Prior to the pandemic, incoming migrants were examined for a variety of ailments, from chickenpox to scabies and lice. During the PRE-COVID-19 days, those were our biggest worries. Today, the stakes are much higher, but the good news is we have a robust system in place where screening for infectious diseases has been expanded to include COVID-19, and with ongoing treatment for immediate needs such as chickenpox, influenza and more. From the beginning, we have treated everyone equally and with dignity and compassionate care.

Since the pandemic began two years ago, the more than 80,000 asylum seekers released to our care were all tested for COVID-19. If they tested positive, they were quarantined in hotel