Title 42 is a 1944 law that Trump recently used to expel immigrants from the US. This law empowers the federal government to take extraordinary measures to prevent the introduction of easily transmissible diseases into the country. Trump used this legislation to expel thousands of immigrants under the pretext of COVID-19.
After a long legal battle between Democrats and Republicans over the legality of this policy, Title 42 will expire this Wednesday, December 21. This represents a victory for the Democrats, but leaves a bitter taste for the immigration system.
With the end of Title 42, we return to Title 8, regulations that are more rigid and strict than 42. Under these regulations, people who enter irregularly must be interviewed by a border agent and demonstrate a "credible fear" of returning to their country
of origin.
The penalties for those who have entered the country illegally on repeated occasions are more severe. Furthermore, the situation is unclear for individuals who were removed under Title 42 and are now attempting to enter under Title 8, since removal under Title 42 is based on public health concerns, while removal under Title 8 is based on admissibility or inadmissibility under immigration law.
In other words, this means that deportations under Title 42 did not take into account a person's merits for remaining in the U.S. Therefore, the government could deport people to Mexico and make them wait there for their hearing, regardless of whether or not they had a strong asylum case. This discouraged many people from crossing irregularly.
With the end of this policy, the door is opened for thousands of immigrants to attempt to enter irregularly starting Wednesday. This is for two reasons: first, there is no mechanism to deport anyone who fails the credible fear interview; and second, those who were deported under Title 42 have not been deported under Title 8, which has a different standard.
Faced with the surge of migrants waiting to cross the border, the Biden team claimed to have increased resources for the area, improved application processing, imposed penalties for illegal entry, and targeted smugglers. Even so, the issue of immigration is a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.
News report compiled from: CNN and San Diego Union Tribune