US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced this Friday that Title 42, a rule that allows for the automatic expulsion of undocumented migrants based on safeguards related to the coronavirus pandemic, will be lifted from March 23.
The end of the measure, Mayorkas explained in a statement, was due to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) decision to lift the restriction for that date, the Voice of America, VOA reported.
Title 42 was implemented by the Trump administration, effectively closing the border to asylum seekers and migrants.
Thousands of immigrants remain stranded at the border with Mexico due to the provision, which has been criticized by human rights groups who have accused the government of using the pretext of the pandemic to close the border.
Mayorkas, of Cuban descent, said that “Title 42 is not an immigration agency, but a public health agency set up by the CDC to stop the spread of a communicable disease,” and warned that the measure would last “until May 23, and by then.” single people and families found at the southeast border will continue to be expelled.
Expectations for the rule’s repeal had grown among immigrants crammed into camps in Mexican cities near the border plagued by organized crime.
There, migrants struggle to find jobs, worry about the debts they’ve racked up to get to the border and live in fear that their children could be kidnapped by drug cartels that prey on the most vulnerable.
The White House Expect a flood of immigrants Once Title 42 is lifted, communications director Kate Bedingfield said Wednesday, and the executive is working on several contingency plans to deal with the situation.
Mayorkas reported that after Title 42 is repealed, immigration authorities will “process persons found at the border under Title 8, which is the regular procedure to bring those persons into deportation (deportation) proceedings.”
He added that “a broad strategy has been put in place to deal with a possible increase in the number of migrants found at the border” and warned that “smugglers will disseminate information to prey on vulnerable migrants”.
In this sense, he stressed that “those who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States will be deported”.
The document also states that “smugglers will be sent to designated border crossing points for law enforcement” and that “additional and appropriate protocols for COVID-19 will be put in place over the next two months, including the expansion of our vaccination program.”
REACTIONS
Cuban-American Congressman Carlos Giménez expressed pessimism about the announcement. “Biden’s decision to end Title 42 will be a total disaster for border security,” he said on Twitter.
New Jersey Senators Bob Menendez (Cuban-American) and Cory Booker said in a joint statement, “Title 42 is a Trump-era relic that prevented the Department of Homeland Security from enforcing our immigration laws and enriched smuggling networks.” by allowing vulnerable migrants to make several dangerous journeys across the border. It failed to protect public health, instead wreaking havoc at the border and injuring asylum seekers fleeing law enforcement and torture.”
“While we support ending Title 42, extending this policy until the end of May will only incentivize more irregular migration to the border and create an unnecessary bottleneck effect when it finally ends. It is our hope that the administration will extend the exemptions to the original and begin to phase out Title 42. They have already used these exemptions to help Ukrainians on the southern border, and the administration should start processing families of all nationalities immediately.
“We also call on the government to redouble its efforts to resolve the crises that are causing unprecedented levels of migration in our hemisphere. Many of our Cuban, Haitian, Venezuelan, Colombian and Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, as well as others in this hemisphere, are facing direct and immediate threats to their lives,” Menéndez and Booker said.