The United States announced this Friday that will rescind the public health order known as Title 42imposed by the covid-19 pandemic and that requires the expulsion of unauthorized migrants arriving at land borders.
The secretary of Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Alexander Mayorcassaid Title 42 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the national public health agency of the United States, will be lifted next month.
“Title 42 will remain in effect until May 23, and until then, DHS will continue to expel single adults and families found at the southwest border,” Mayorkas said in a statement.
Title 42, effective March 2020, requires the removal of single adults and unauthorized family units that reach the land borders of the United States as a way to slow the spread of covid-19.
“Once the Title 42 order is no longer in effect, DHS will process people found at the border under Title 8, which is the standard procedure we use for removal proceedings,” Mayorkas added.
“Let me be clear: those who cannot establish a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed,” he said.
Mayorkas said more border agents were being deployed to “process new arrivals, assess asylum claims and quickly expel those who do not qualify for protection.”
Immigrant advocates had argued that Title 42 was becoming outdated as Covid-19 cases decline and that it was an affront to international conventions that allow people to apply for asylum.
