In recent weeks, the headlines have been full of contradictory news about Title 42, the so-called “public health” border measure that allows the government to turn back or expel people arriving at the U.S. border seeking asylum. After nearly two years of this inhumane policy begun during the Trump administration, the Biden administration has finally announced the termination of the program on May 23, 2022.

The program has caused enormous humanitarian harm. It allowed U.S. border officials to turn back over 1.2 million people between February 2021 and February 2022 alone, sending those seeking protection into often-volatile border cities where they can be kidnapped, raped, and extorted by those ready to take advantage of disoriented and desperate migrants. In addition, the rapid expulsion of families can lead to devastating consequences including family separation.

Take, for example Ana, who fled to the border to seek asylum in 2020 with her two daughters, Sara, who is 8 and Teresa, who is 10. They spent nearly a year at the border waiting for their turn to cross, but they were kidnapped by a cartel and spent 2 months frightened for their safety. After they were released, Ana decided it was time to stop waiting. While they were crossing into the United States, Sara fainted because of the arduous trek, and as Ana tended to her, she didn’t realize that Teresa had continued on with the rest of their group. Ana and Sara were picked up shortly after by U.S. border officials. Ana attempted to explain she had been separated from her daughter, but when Teresa still hadn’t been found by nightfall, officers told her she couldn’t stay. Instead of reunifying the family, U.S. border officials expelled Ana and Sara under Title 42.

Ana and Sara waited on the international bridge for two whole days for news of Teresa, in full view of kidnappers and cartel members, but were forced to leave by border agents. Six days later, they finally got in touch with Teresa: she had ended up in an unaccompanied children’s shelter in the Midwest, separated from her mom and sister.

Eleven long months later, the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) finally succeeded in helping her mother and sister come back into the country. Had Title 42 not been in place, Ana would have been allowed to request asylum with her daughters when she first entered the United States. Officials would have recognized Teresa had been separated from her and they almost certainly would have been promptly reunified and allowed them to request protection as a family.

NIJC applauds the Biden administration for ending this clearly harmful program. After two years of working with clients like Ana, Sara, and Teresa, we’re looking forward to a future in which we can count on the United States to meet its obligations towards asylum seekers, and provide the kind of haven the U.S. has often prided itself on being.

So why do we have this policy to begin with?

The entire concept of an “expulsion” under Title 42 was invented by the Trump administration in March 2020, when former Vice President Mike Pence and Trump top aide Stephen Miller strong-armed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to use public health justifications to shut down the border. Experts found no public health rationale for this ban on asylum seekers, 91.9 percent of whom could have sheltered in place with loved ones like the rest of the country’s residents. With few exceptions and despite litigation, the CDC renewed Title 42 for the two years that followed, even as the country saw lulls in COVID-19 numbers and loosened masking and gathering restrictions.

The real reason for the associations between migrants and disease go back to some of the earliest tenets of white supremacy. In the 19th century, lawmakers groomed the ideology that immigrants may carry “loathsome and contagious disease.” This view — predicated on racist, classist, and ableist stereotypes — laid the groundwork for selective medical screenings, deportations, and eugenics in the 20th century. Immigration became synonymous with contagion and a threat to domestic welfare. We can see these patterns continuing with the policies enacted against Haitians during the height of the HIV epidemic, and more recently, with the way U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas called on border patrol to exempt Ukrainians from Title 42 expulsions, a necessary grace that has not been granted to refugees fleeing non-European countries.

Unfortunately, these policies continue to have their supporters as well. A minority of members of Congress have called for the Biden administration to continue Title 42 expulsions as a border management tool, fearing a predicted increase in migration. These statements make clear once more that public health never informed the decision to implement Title 42. They also ignore the United States’ decades of experience processing asylum seekers prior to the pandemic and border communities and nonprofits’ long history of welcoming migrants seeking refuge.

Border communities and service providers have rejected any further delay in ending Title 42 and stand ready to welcome asylum seekers. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has clarified that the agency is fully equipped to secure and manage our borders while building a fair and orderly immigration system, pointing to the billions in funds already appropriated by Congress to improve border processing. Existing border reception centers work tirelessly to provide arriving families voluntary respite and social support services, COVID-19 testing as needed, orientation to the asylum system, and assistance with securing safe transportation to their final destinations.

That’s why, even as the United States prepares to finally meet our obligations to the asylum seekers coming to our country, we also need you to be vocal to remind our lawmakers to support the termination of Title 42.

TAKE ACTION: We’ve set up a tool that allows you to easily send an email and call your members of Congress and urge them to support ending Title 42. Tell your members of Congress to support ending Title 42!

If you want to learn more about Title 42 and why we must stop expelling people at the border, check out NIJC's FAQ about Title 42.

Please share this resource and the action with your networks!

Thank you for joining us in welcoming people seeking refuge and in defending their legal right to seek asylum.

-Azadeh Erfani
Senior Policy Analyst, National Immigrant Justice Center

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