On May 11, the Biden administration announced the end of Title 42, a public health rule that was exploited during the COVID-19 pandemic to block people from seeking asylum at the US southern border. In its place, the US will use both existing inhumane immigration laws and newly announced asylum restrictions to deter vulnerable people from seeking protection at the border.

“Title 42 proved to be one of the US government’s most sweeping—and most cruel—anti-asylum policies,” said Avril Benoît, executive director of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières in the United States (MSF-USA). “We should be celebrating the end of Title 42. Instead, our medical teams are bracing for the human impact and suffering to come as the Biden administration rolls out sweeping new asylum restrictions.” MSF teams working along migration routes in the Americas and around the world see the dire health consequences of harsh measures that seek to deter migration.  Read more.