CDC to End Trump-Era Title 42 Policy on 23 May Despite Warnings It Will Fuel Migrant Influx

US border agents and customs officials have used Title 42 extensively over the past two years to expel persons trying to enter the country illegally via the southern border. The measure was one of the few immigration-related directives left in place by the Biden administration after taking over from Donald Trump.

The US Centres for Disease Control will be terminating Title 42 as of 23 May, with the measure deemed "no longer necessary", agency Director Rochelle Walensky and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have indicated.

"With this Termination, I hereby determine that the danger of further introduction, transmission or spread of COVID-19 into the United States from covered noncitizens...has ceased to be a serious danger to the public health and therefore the continuation of the August Order, and all previous orders issued under the same authority, is no longer necessary to protect public health", Walensky wrote in an agency directive issued Friday.

The "August Order" cited by Walensky is reference to an updated version of the Title 42 directive issued by the CDC last year.

The CDC says its termination of Title 42 will be implemented "in consultation with" the DHS by 23 May, giving the agency "time to implement appropriate COVID-19 mitigation protocols, such as scaling up a program to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to migrants and prepare for resumption of regular migration under Title 8" (the body of federal law dealing with immigration and nationality).

Mayorkas tweeted out a separate press statement on Title 42's termination. "Title 42 is not an immigration authority, but rather a public health authority used by the [CDC] to protect against the spread of communicable disease", he explained. "Once the Title 42 Order is no longer in place, DHS will process individuals encountered at the border pursuant to Title 8, which is the standard procedure we use to place individuals in removal proceedings".

Statement on the @CDCgov's Title 42 Order Termination ⬇️https://t.co/XD9BKcTBsi pic.twitter.com/rJgPtrQ7mI

— Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (@SecMayorkas) April 1, 2022

"Nonetheless, we know that smugglers will spread misinformation and take advantage of vulnerable migrants. Let me be clear: those unable to establish a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed", the DHS chief stressed.

US border patrol and governors, mayors, and lawmakers from states that border Mexico have expressed fears that all hell will break loose on the US frontier with its southern neighbour if the plug is pulled on Title 42. Officials and law enforcement have said that the situation is already at a breaking point, with agents making nearly two million arrests of undocumented immigrants in 2021, and currently encountering over 7,100 migrants on average per day.

The Trump administration implemented Title 42 in March 2020, using it to justify the expulsion of over 80 percent of illegal immigrants caught trying to enter the country. Under the Biden administration that figure dropped to 55 percent. Critics of Title 42 have dismissed it as a "racist" and "unjust" policy, and suggested that its predication on supposed public health concerns is just a pretext. Supporters have defended the policy as one of the few remaining means available to the government to quickly expel illegal migrants. Under Title 42, people can be kicked out of the US in hours, compared with the days they typically have to stay in CBP custody under Title 8 processing.