What is Title 42 and how does this deportation policy work?

( Spanish) — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Title 42, a controversial rule that has allowed US authorities to expel more than 1 million migrants who crossed the US-Mexico border.

Here’s a look at some key questions and answers about the controversial policy. Title 42.

What is Title 42?

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the CDC issued a public health order on March 20, 2020, which officials said was aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19.

The order allowed authorities to quickly expel migrants at US land borders and has been extended multiple times. The policy is widely known as Title 42, by the part of the US code that allowed the director of the CDC to issued it.

Under Title 42, the Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP, for its acronym in English) prohibits the entry of certain people who “potentially pose a health risk.” Either due to previously announced travel restrictions or having entered the country illegally in order to “evade medical screening measures.”

According to CBP, individuals who are apprehended are not held in congregate areas for processing and are immediately removed to their country of last transit. According to CBP data, from March 2020 to April 2022, 1.7 million migrants had been sent back to Mexico or their country of origin.

Thanks to Title 42 border officials can immediately remove migrants entering through Canada and Mexico to the US Unaccompanied migrant minors are exempt from this measure.

On April 1 of this year, the CDC announced plans to rescind the order, stating that it is no longer necessary given the current public health conditions and the increased availability of vaccines and treatments for covid-19. The policy was scheduled to end on May 23.

A federal judge in Louisiana He said in April that he planned to temporarily block any termination of the policy.

On Tuesday, November 15, District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington blocked Title 42, saying he found the order to be “arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.”

Why is it controversial?

After the Biden administration announced it was withdrawing the policy, a debate erupted over whether terminating its enforcement is justified and whether officials are prepared to handle an expected surge of immigrants at the border.

Republican lawmakers running for re-election during the past midterm elections used the repeal of Title 42 as a talking point to attack Democrats on immigration. Republicans who had spoken about the importance of ending other pandemic restrictions now describe ending Title 42 as a dangerous mistake.

Democrats in swing states facing tough re-election battles had also criticized the move, arguing that the administration does not have a clear plan.

In April, the states of Arizona, Louisiana and Missouri took the fight over Title 42 to court, arguing that proper procedures had not been followed when the administration announced the end of the policy. Since then, more than a dozen statesmostly led by the Republican Party, have joined the demand.

But the Title 42 controversy did not begin with the Biden administration’s announcement of plans to reverse the policy.

The border restrictions were controversial from the moment the Trump administration announced them. Immigrant rights advocates argued that officials were using public health as a pretext to keep as many immigrants as possible out of the country. Public health experts also criticized the policy, saying it was not justified by the circumstances.

Prominent Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the policy “draconian” and “inhuman”.

Many advocates expected President Biden to lift the order when he took office, given his campaign promises to build a more humane immigration system. Instead, his administration extended the policy and defended it for months in court.

Why was Title 42 extended?

Migrants who were sent back to Mexico under Title 42 wait in line to receive food and supplies at a camp across the US-Mexico border in Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

CDC determined at that time that the expulsion of certain citizens was necessary to protect public health. This is because DHS “simply cannot safely process all non-citizen families under the current circumstances, and especially in the event of a large-scale influx,” the statement read. shahoulian.

The Homeland Security official also indicated that the US is facing a record number of non-citizens, including families, at the border, “causing border facilities to fill up beyond their normal operating capacity” affecting the ability to apply measures against covid-19, such as physical distancing. “Also [se] is experiencing a significant increase in the rates of non-citizens testing positive for covid-19,” he said.

The US Border Patrol made more than 158,000 apprehensions at the US southern border in February 2022, according to agency data. These numbers include people who attempted to cross more than once.

What has been happening at the border since this policy began?

Under Title 42, authorities expelled migrants at the US-Mexico border more than 1.8 million times in just over two years, according to CBP data. The US asylum system ground to a halt and immigrants who claimed they were fleeing persecution were unable to present their case, something US and international law says they should be able to do.

The policy drew renewed attention when authorities initially used it to turn away Ukrainians at the border, and later began to grant exceptions that allowed thousands of Ukrainians seeking refuge to cross.

Defenders argued that a racist double standard was at play, as many migrants from Central America and Haiti continued to be returned under the policy. Officials denied that allegation, saying each waiver is granted on a case-by-case basis.

Migrants found under Title 42 are deported to their home countries or to Mexico, where human rights advocates say they have documented many abuses. Since President Biden took office, Human Rights First says it has identified almost 10,000 cases of kidnapping, torture, rape or other violent attacks against people blocked or expelled to Mexico under Title 42.

But migrants have not stopped trying to cross the US-Mexico border, a detail noted by people on both sides of the debate, with very different arguments about what it shows.

CBP says arrests along the US-Mexico border increased in March, when there were more than 220,000 migrant encounters. CBP said it had apprehended more than 1 million people from the start of the last fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, 2021, through April 2022.

To some extent, migration is seasonal. And the number of people trying to cross the border tends to spike in the spring. Experts also say that the economic difficulties of the pandemic have further intensified migratory trends.

Title 42 supporters point to border arrests while arguing how essential pandemic policy is to blocking illegal immigration. Opponents of the policy argue that official statistics on border encounters inflate the seriousness of the situation, because the data includes people who cross the border multiple times. They argue that Title 42 it has actually caused more border crossings.

What can change?

Officials have indicated they expect the end of Title 42 would trigger a new influx of immigrants at the border. They have said they are preparing for different outcomes, including the worst-case scenario that up to 18,000 migrants a day could attempt to cross the border.

But they haven’t revealed many details about how they will respond.

“We have plans. We are executing those plans,” the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, told in April.

“I think we need to be very aware of the fact that we are addressing enemies, and those enemies are the cartels and the smugglers, and I will not provide them with our plans. We are going to proceed with our execution, carefully, methodically, anticipating different scenarios,” he added.

If the order is lifted, the way migrants are processed at the border would go back to the way it was before 2020. Under that system, migrants are removed from the country, detained, or released in the US while their cases make their way in immigration court.

Migrants who have been waiting for months or even years in camps and makeshift shelters in Mexico giveThey told that they felt hopeful..

Priscilla Alvarez, Rosa Flores, Daniella Diaz, and Geneva Sands contributed to this report.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in April 2022 and has been updated.