Credit CNN

What is Title 42, why is it ending and what’s happening now at the border?

Credit CNN

The end of a controversial border policy is looming. Title 42, the Trump-era pandemic public health restrictions that became a key tool officials used to turn back migrants at the US-Mexico border, is set to expire on May 11.

Credit CNN

What is Title 42? In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a public health order that officials said aimed to stop the spread of Covid-19. The order allowed authorities to swiftly expel migrants at US land borders. The policy is widely known as Title 42, for the portion of US code that allowed the CDC director to issue it.

Credit CNN

Why is Title 42 ending? We’ve known for months that Title 42’s days were numbered. The policy’s end comes as the Biden administration is ending the Covid public health emergency nationally. The emergency declaration was the legal underpinning for Title 42’s border restrictions, in addition to a number of other policies.

Credit CNN

What will happen at the border after Title 42 is lifted? Officials predict that lifting Title 42 is likely to spur a significant increase in the number of migrants trying to cross into the US. One reason for the expected spike: Many migrants who were sent back to Mexico under the policy are desperate and losing patience.

Credit CNN

Title 8 is back in effect Title 42 allowed border authorities to swiftly turn away migrants encountered at the US-Mexico border, often depriving migrants of the chance to claim asylum and dramatically cutting down on border processing time. But Title 42 also carried almost no legal consequences for migrants crossing, meaning if they were pushed back, they could try to cross again multiple times. Now that Title 42 has lifted, the US government is returning to a decades-old section of US code known as Title 8, which Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has warned would carry “more severe” consequences for migrants found to be entering the country without a legal basis.

Credit CNN

CNN The expiration of a pandemic-era public health restriction that will significantly alter several years of US immigration policy has arrived, threatening chaos as an estimated tens of thousands of migrants mass near the US-Mexico border in anticipation. Issued during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Title 42 allowed authorities to swiftly turn away migrants at the US borders, ostensibly to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. But that changed late Thursday when the public health emergency and Title 42 lapsed.