The pressure is steadily mounting on President Joe Biden to rescind a federal health code provision allowing the U.S. to summarily expel asylum seekers and immigrants to the home countries where they faced persecution.
Immigrant rights groups, including Baptist and other religious organizations, are demanding the White House strike down Title 42, a Trump-era rule implemented in March 2020 to end the longstanding American practice of allowing refugees fleeing war, famine and natural disaster to enter the U.S. to file applications for asylum. Protecting the nation from COVID-19 was the rationale behind the provision.
“Using this provision, hundreds of thousands of people have been subject to expulsions since the pandemic began, even though ports of entry remain open with nearly 9 million people crossing the southern border in December 2020, and thousands of people flying into the United States every day,” according to a 2021 American Immigration Council fact sheet.
“Not only does the Title 42 policy violate U.S. refugee law and treaties, but it also endangers people seeking U.S. protection.”
The Biden administration has kept the rule in place but also amended it to prevent the expulsion of unaccompanied minors who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Immigrant rights groups have been pressing the president since his inauguration to strike down Title 42, even when the action was reportedly only a few months away. That was six months ago.
“Not only does the Title 42 policy violate U.S. refugee law and treaties, but it also endangers people seeking U.S. protection, with over 3,250 kidnappings, rapes and other attacks on people expelled or blocked at the U.S.-Mexico border since you took office. This number rises every day your administration fails to end this policy,” said 105 nongovernmental organizations and religious groups, including the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Fellowship Southwest, in a June 30 letter to the president.
The signees —which also include Amnesty International, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Children’s Defense Fund and Human Rights Watch — disputed any assertion that the rule has ever had, or continues to have, a health benefit to the nation.
“Many of our organizations have repeatedly called on your administration to end the Title 42 expulsion policy and restart asylum processing for people seeking refuge. Rational, science-based measures, recommended by public health experts, exist to mitigate COVID-19 concerns and safely process asylum seekers at the border,” the letter states. “The use of Title 42 … was implemented over the objections of senior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention experts and has been widely discredited by epidemiologists and public health experts who have confirmed it has ‘no scientific basis as a public health measure.’”
The coalition letter also laments Biden’s comments earlier this year when he publicly urged refugees: “Don’t come” to the United States.
The coalition letter also laments Biden’s comments earlier this year when he publicly urged refugees: “Don’t come” to the United States.
“We are concerned that this administration continues to look to deterrence as a strategy to address processing of asylum seekers at the border. Ankle monitors, budget requests for expansive detention, and expedited removal are part of a deterrence strategy that is inhumane and ineffective,” the letter continues. “Such a cruel strategy is the physical manifestation of the statement ‘Don’t come.’”
The letter calls for an end to Title 42 while also noting the way it has been used to unfairly target certain groups of people.
“We urge your administration to fully rescind this policy for all populations, comply with U.S. refugee law, and ensure that Black, LGBTQ and other adult asylum seekers, many of whom have been turned back or expelled at ports of entry, as well as families and children, have swift access to the U.S. asylum system.”
The religious leaders join others demanding an immediate end to Title 42.
Ayanna Pressle
“We must be decisive and unapologetic in our efforts to dismantle racist and discriminatory policies; Title 42 is no exception,” U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D.-Mass., said in July 21 comments provided by Welcome with Dignity. “We know this policy has disproportionately singled out Black, Indigenous and Latino asylum-seekers from Haiti, Africa and Central America, forcing them to return to the very countries where they fled persecution and torture.”
Pressley cited the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Haiti in particular as a reason to rescind the provision. “Yet in the early days of the Biden administration, more Haitians were expelled than during all of fiscal year 2020. We have the responsibility to change course.”
Black refugees stranded across the border because of the rule are especially vulnerable, U.S. Rep. Judy Chu of California said in the Welcome with Dignity news release.
Judy Chu
“Not only was Title 42 misused as part of a war on immigrants, it has had a disproportionate impact on Black migrants of African descent still waiting for their cases to be heard,” Chu said. “Without any legal pathway to protection, Black asylum seekers are stranded in Mexico where they face extreme danger as they are often alienated due to language barriers and are subjected to racial discrimination.”
Some groups have called for prayer to address the hardships created by Title 42, including Women of Welcome, a national Christian hospitality ministry.
In an Instagram post, the organization referenced data showing that 55% of all immigrants arriving at the border in June were expelled. That included 82% of all single adults and 15% of “individuals in family units” and no unaccompanied children.
“It’s good to see vulnerable children are going through the appropriate screenings and processes, and we’re glad to see more people are being allowed to pursue their legal asylum claims,” the evangelical women’s group said. “We continue to pray for all those fleeing violence and danger.”
Interest in Title 42 has been high among religious groups working with migrants on both sides of the border, said Elket Rodriguez, CBF’s Texas-based immigrant and refugee advocacy and missions specialist.
Elket Rodriguez
Rodriguez recently led a workshop about the provision and other Trump-era immigration policies for members of an international and ecumenical migrant ministry.
“I explained … how the United States was exporting its international responsibility to protect asylum seekers to northern Mexico. In addition, I explained how this export of migrants really became an export of misery to Mexico by creating a humanitarian crisis that guaranteed cartels and corrupt officials indefinite access to a defenseless, vulnerable and captive group of people — migrants — that could be easily exploited for their criminal enterprises,” he said.
Writing for Fellowship Southwest in April, Rodriguez said exempting unaccompanied minors from Title 42 enforcement has created other crises. “A backlog of migrant children in border patrol’s custody and the flow of migrant families released into the country are testing the limits of immigration authorities, local governments, transportation systems and the governmental organizations that assist migrants and immigration officials alike.”
Ali Noorani, president of the National Immigration Forum, asserted that simply ending Title 42 will not solve the border challenges facing the U.S. and asylum seekers.
“First, these are complicated problems that require complex, long-term solutions. Leaders of both parties must make these issues top-tier, government-wide priorities. Not merely photo ops and press releases,” Noorani said in a July 15 column published by Morning Consult.
“Second, as I learned from leaders on the border, collaboration is key. For example, when the Biden administration lifts the Title 42 public health border restrictions that have stifled trade, tourism and immigration, it must strengthen the new partnerships in place with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration and other organizations on the Mexican side of the border. These relationships have allowed for a controlled unwinding of the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols. A template that can and should be used for the lifting of Title 42.”
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