US to end COVID-era Title 42 policy restricting asylum next month

The Biden administration announced Friday it would be lifting a COVID-era border policy originally enacted under former President Donald Trump on May 23, CNBC reports.

The measure, known as Title 42, has allowed the U.S. to expeditiously expel migrants at the southern border without permitting them to seek asylum for reasons of public health. The CDC has governed both the measure and how long it's remained in place.

In its statement, the CDC said, "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."

US President Joe Biden had been under pressure from his party to end the controversial order, with critics arguing that its public health benefits failed to outweigh harm to the rights of migrants.

Enacted by former President Trump in March 2020, it allows US authorities to expel migrants seeking asylum without being given the chance to put forward their case. Children and some families are exempt.

Though Mr Biden had pledged to reverse Trump-era immigration policies while in office, the CDC under his administration extended Title 42 in August 2021, and again in January, due to the delta and omicron variants, respectively.

On Friday, the CDC said that it was ready to rescind the policy given the current, more favourable public health outlook and after consulting with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Republicans hinted at legal action to come. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the actions would “endanger Texans.”

“The state of Texas must take even more unprecedented action to keep our communities safe by using any and all constitutional powers to protect its own territory,” he said.

The federal order says efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to provide vaccines to migrants at the border will step up in the next two months. The government is currently administering up to 2,000 vaccines a day at 11 locations across the border.

The decision is expected to draw more migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border. And Biden has already dealt with several migrant surges, drawing sharp criticism of his immigration policies. Even before it was officially announced, more than a dozen migrants excitedly ran out of their dormitory at the Good Samaritan shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, asking about it.

Homeland Security officials said this week that about 7,100 migrants were coming daily, compared with an average of about 5,900 a day in February — on pace to match or exceed highs from last year, 2019 and other peak periods. But border officials said they are planning for as many as 18,000 arrivals daily, and that seems certain to cause challenges for border-region Democrats in tight reelection races — with some warning that the Biden administration is unprepared to handle the situation.

Migrants have been expelled more than 1.7 million times from the U.S. under public health powers invoked in March 2020 that are designed to prevent spread of Covid-19.