The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday it will stop authorizing U.S. border agents to expel migrants without asylum interviews on May 23, saying the expulsion policy, known as Title 42, is no longer necessary to control the spread of the coronavirus.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said she decided to terminate the order that authorized the border expulsions because of improving pandemic conditions, including increased vaccination rates in the U.S. and migrants’ home countries and the drop in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations since the Omicron surge this winter.
“While the introduction, transmission, and spread of COVID-19 into the United States is likely to continue to some degree, the cross-border spread of COVID-19 due to covered noncitizens does not present the serious danger to public health that it once did, given the range of mitigation measures now available,” Walensky wrote in her 30-page directive.
Walensky said she delayed the termination until late May to give Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials time to implement coronavirus mitigation measures, including a migrant vaccination campaign launched earlier this week.
CBS News and other media outlets reported the Title 42 wind-down plan earlier this week.
Walensky’s order on Friday marks the beginning of the end of an unprecedented Trump-era border policy started in March 2020 that the Biden administration continued for over a year, despite concerns about the validity of its public health justification.
U.S. authorities along the Mexican border have used Title 42 to expel migrants over 1.7 million times in two years. Roughly 70% of those expulsions occurred during the Biden administration, which has faced a record number of migrant arrivals to the southern border in the past year, DHS figures show.
Title 42 has allowed border authorities to bypass U.S. immigration laws, which require them to screen asylum-seekers to determine whether they could be harmed if deported. Most migrants processed under Title 42 have been expelled by land to Mexico, while others have been placed on deportation flights to Brazil, Central America, Colombia, Haiti and other countries in Latin America.
During a briefing with reporters Friday, senior DHS officials said the U.S. will continue to expel single adult migrants and families traveling with children in the next few weeks until Title 42 is formally lifted.
After Title 42 is terminated, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Friday, migrants who enter the U.S. illegally will be placed in deportation proceedings, and his department will strive to deport those who don’t qualify for asylum using longstanding immigration laws.
Mayorkas warned that those who smuggle migrants would likely misrepresent U.S. border policy in light of Friday’s announcement, echoing concerns from DHS officials, who are preparing for a record spike in migrant arrests following Title 42’s termination.
“We know that smugglers will spread misinformation to take advantage of vulnerable migrants,” Mayorkas added. “Let me be clear: those unable to establish a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed.”
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Mayorkas noted that 600 additional Border Patrol agents have been deployed and a senior DHS official said the department is prepared to mobilize other officers. U.S. border agents are also referring smugglers and certain adult migrants to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, the official added.
Once Title 42 ends, the administration is planning to send more asylum-seekers to Mexico under another Trump-era program reinstated late last year due to a federal court order, the senior DHS official said. So far, the court-ordered revival of the Remain-in-Mexico policy has been limited, affecting fewer than 2,000 migrants.
The DHS official said the department is expanding its recently launched migrant vaccination plans to be able to inoculate up to 6,000 individuals in border custody daily by the time Title 42 ends.
Single adult migrants who refuse to get vaccinated will be referred to ICE detention, the DHS official said, while families who refuse a shot will be released with “more stringent conditions of parole,” which would likely include ankle monitors.
While many Democratic lawmakers praised the Biden administration for winding down Title 42, Friday’s announcement garnered widespread condemnation from Republicans, as well as criticism from some moderate Democrats.
Senators Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona; Joe Manchin of West Virginia; and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire were among the Democratic lawmakers who voiced concerns about Title 42’s end.
“This is the wrong decision,” said Kelly, who’s up for reelection in November. “It’s unacceptable to end Title 42 without a plan and coordination in place to ensure a secure, orderly, and humane process at the border.”
Senator Richard Burr, a Republican from North Carolina, said Title 42’s rescission would hinder the government’s ability to “prevent new, potentially undetected variants from entering the country.”
Citing the recent relaxation of other pandemic restrictions, Democratic Representatives Bennie Thompson and Nanette Barragán said it was time to discontinue the Trump-era border expulsions.
“This harmful and inhumane policy was never based on sound science or public health need but was an all-too-convenient tool for the extreme members of the previous Administration to close the border,” Thompson and Barragán said in a joint statement.
