The Biden administration is ending use of the provision known as Title 42 at one minute before midnight tonight – May 11. The provision is notorious for having been used since March 20, 2020 to unilaterally and rapidly expel millions of people seeking asylum in the U.S. without considering their asylum claim.
Legal and health experts have long posited that although the Trump administration said Title 42 was implemented to control the spread of Covid-19, in reality the pandemic was used as an excuse by the administration to deport asylum seekers. According to the American Immigration Council, early in the pandemic, “CDC scientists expressed opposition to the invocation of Title 42, arguing that there was no public health rationale to support it.” Following the sundowning of Title 42, President Biden plans to implement a rule change that advocates are referring to as “an asylum ban.” New measures will include the increased deployment of troops at the border; more processing centers; faster processing and deportation speeds; an insistence on using the faulty CBP One Mobile App. The new rules will effectively make it impossible for most people to seek asylum in the U.S.
The right to seek asylum is enshrined in both national and international conventions and treaties. According to the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, “Asylum is a form of protection which allows an individual to remain in the United States instead of being removed (deported) to a country where he or she fears persecution or harm. Under U.S. law, people who flee their countries because they fear persecution can apply for asylum. If they are granted asylum, this gives them protection and the right to stay in the United States…Persecution can be harm or threats of harm to you or your family or to people similar to you. A person can also obtain asylum if he or she has suffered persecution in his or her country in the past. You only can win asylum if at least one of the reasons someone harmed or may harm you is because of your race, religion, nationality, political opinion (or a political opinion someone thinks you have), or the fact that you are part of a “particular social group.”
The rule change represents a major shift in U.S. policy and is “completely counter to our existing U.S. law, to the commitments that we have made under international law … and principles that asylum exists because people are fleeing persecution and they are in need of safety.”
— Lisa Parisio, ILAP senior policy and outreach attorney
Lisa Parisio, ILAP’s Senior Policy and Outreach Attorney, has said that the rule change represents a major shift in U.S. policy and is “completely counter to our existing U.S. law, to the commitments that we have made under international law … and principles that asylum exists because people are fleeing persecution and they are in need of safety. Our law makes very clear that no matter how you are forced to travel to the United States, no matter how you were forced to enter the United States, you have the right to seek asylum. And what this rule does is undo those core principles of this humanitarian protection.”
The right to seek asylum is enshrined in both national and international conventions and treaties
The federal register listing the proposed rule change – which was only open for 30 days, instead of the usual 60 – noted the policy is “…in anticipation of a potential surge of migration at the southwest border of the United States following the eventual termination of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (“CDC”) public health order. The proposed rule would encourage migrants to avail themselves of lawful, safe, and orderly pathways into the United States…”
But advocates say those “lawful, safe, and orderly pathways” are non-existent for just about everyone, and that is why people travel on foot over mountains and through such treacherous jungles – fording rivers and risking death each day. If safe pathways existed, people would choose those, they argue.
In a statement on May 11, ILAP wrote: “The Biden administration is putting in place a new asylum ban that, like Title 42, will deny access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border; disproportionately impact Black and Brown immigrants; and leave people trapped in dangerous situations. ILAP opposes this policy and was one of the more than 50,000 individuals and organizations that submitted a public comment against this ban in the short 30-day public comment period.”
According to the UNHCR, 117.2 million people will be forcibly displaced or stateless in 2023.
