COVID limit on asylum seekers at border is expected to end in May
WASHINGTON - The Biden administration is expected to announce that it will rescind a Trump-era policy that made it harder for migrants to seek asylum in the United States by May 23, according to reports.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to issue the order later this week to end the Title 42 policy, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Associated Press reported the decision is not yet final.
The decision to end the policy in May would allow the Department of Homeland Security to prepare for an increase of migrants who may come to the border, the outlets reported.
The White House declined to confirm whether Title 42 will be ended.
“This is a decision that we have long deferred to CDC,” White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said Wednesday. “Title 42 is a public health directive. It is not an immigration or migration enforcement measure.”
Title 42 enacted in 2020
Former President Donald Trump invoked the policy as a step to protect public health in 2020. Since coming into office, the Biden administration has embraced it under the same public health justification, denying critics' assertions they are using it to curb immigration.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had extended its asylum-blocking powers for two months in late January, near the height of the omicron variant.
The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that about 7,100 migrants were coming daily through the southern border, compared with an average of about 5,900 a day in February, and the number of encounters is on pace to match or exceed highs from last year, 2019 and other peak periods.
Bedingfield said Wednesday that the administration has "every expectation that when the CDC ultimately decides it's appropriate to lift Title 42, there will be an influx of people to the border.
"We're doing a lot of work to plan for that contingency," she added.
Border crossings: Migrant encounters fall in January at US-Mexico border, first month-to-month decline since September
Immigration advocates and some Democratic lawmakers have been urging the Biden administration to end the policy. However, conservatives and some Republican lawmakers have called on Biden to keep the policy in place.
The policy has caused an increase of migrants who repeatedly crossed the border.
According to the latest statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than one-fourth of the border encounters in January were repeat-crossers, and attempted to get back into the U.S. to seek asylum.
Immigration police enacted in March 2020
The limits went into place in March 2020 under the Trump administration as coronavirus cases soared. While officials said at the time that it was a way to keep COVID-19 out of the United States, there always has been criticism that the restrictions were used as an excuse to seal the border to migrants unwanted by then-President Donald Trump.
It was perhaps the broadest of Trump's actions at the border to restrict crossings and crack down on migrants. The health order has caused migrants to be expelled from the United States more than 1.7 million times since March 2020 without a chance for them to request asylum.
The limits took effect over the objections of CDC officials, and Dr. Martin Cetron of the Division of Migration and Quarantine refused the order to begin its use. He said there was no public health basis for such a drastic move, the AP reported. But then-Vice President Mike Pence ordered the CDC's director to use the agency's emergency powers and it went into effect.
The limitations on seeking asylum became more difficult to defend on scientific grounds as mask mandates were lifted, vaccination rates climbed and COVID-19 rates dropped among migrants crossing from Mexico.
More: 'Disaster of epic proportions': Migrant deaths on the rise; Border Patrol increases rescues
Dems divided on repeal of Title 42
President Joe Biden, who has rolled back some of Trump's other more restrictive policies and reinstated higher asylum figures, has taken increasing criticism for keeping the policy.
Homeland Security officials, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and other top Democrats were increasingly vocal about wanting to end so-called Title 42 authority, named for a 1944 public health law to prevent communicable disease.
Schumer called it "perplexing that the (CDC) continues to recommend the extended use of this Draconian policy at the border, contradicting the overwhelming signs of America's pandemic recovery under President Biden's leadership." His comments were in a joint statement this month with Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Alex Padilla of California.
Not all Democratic elected officials agreed, including some from border and swing states. Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema, both Arizona Democrats, sided with Republican leaders to say Title 42 should remain until U.S. border authorities were prepared for sharp increases in new arrivals.
Contributing: Associated Press