Uproar over Title 42 reform
President Joe Biden has dealt with the mass immigration that former President Trump could not get complete control of. As his first term is ending, Biden is trying to make good on his promise of protecting the borders while also welcoming aliens to the states legally and safely.
Biden started with reforming Title 42, which dates back to 1944 but was reinstated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the height of the pandemic, has been used for the past three years to stem the flow of immigration. Under Title 42, U.S. government authorities were authorized to swiftly expel migrants at U.S. land borders to prevent the spread of diseases, namely, COVID-19. This led to many families separated during the migration process, and some immigrants died from various infections and diseases, in the now-disbanded camps, U.S. officials held at the borders to house those crossing over from their native countries.
Biden's reforms to the policy were first to replace Title 42 with the pre-existing Title 8, which calls for more consequences for migrants who do not qualify for entry into the country as they will not only be deported but will also be banned from re-entering the country for at least five years. Another part of the policy Biden has changed is that migrants are ineligible to seek asylum in the U.S. if they've passed through another country before reaching U.S. land borders. This has led many to question if Biden is violating immigration rights, and advocates are preparing to sue if he doesn't dismantle Title 8.
"People fleeing persecution have a legal right to seek asylum, no matter how they reach the border," said Melissa Crow, director of litigation at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, in a statement.
"Our asylum system was designed to protect people fleeing imminent threats to their lives, who do not have the luxury of waiting for an elusive appointment or for an application to be adjudicated in a country where they are in danger," Crow said about what Biden has done compared to what Trump did. " The Biden administration has had over two years to set up a fair and humane asylum process post-Title 42. That it has instead chosen to resurrect and repackage illegal Trump-era policies is reprehensible."
Pensacola-based U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell denied a motion for a stay entered by the Department of Justice, which many believe could lead to a large number of migrants being released into the United States. Wetherell wrote that the policy was “materially indistinguishable” from the policy that he rejected in March, which was the "Parole Plus Alternatives to Detention."
“The Parole with Conditions policy operates in precisely the same manner as the Parole+ATD policy — by allowing immigration officials to ‘parole’ arriving aliens into the country on the condition that they schedule an appointment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility (or check-in online) within a specified period to be placed in an immigration proceeding,” Wetherell said.
