As we see escalating political tensions at the border, a judge this week struck a blow to one of the toughest enforcement tools the Biden administration has been using to stem the flow of migrants into the country.
Title 42 has been a controversial tool used by the federal government since the Trump administration took it up at the beginning of the pandemic.
It’s a public health measure put in place ostensibly to help control the spread of COVID-19 among immigrants amid the pandemic. But immigrant rights advocates say it has been used as a blunt enforcement tool to quickly turn back migrants that Border Patrol comes into contact with — without giving them a chance to seek asylum in our country.
Now, a federal judge has ruled the federal government has to stop using it to expel families who are caught along the border.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan last week issued a preliminary injunction and said the practice deprives people of the right to seek asylum in the U.S. and uses the pandemic as an invalid excuse.
The Associated Press reports that in August alone, more than 16,000 people travelling in family groups were expelled under Title 42.
To learn about the impact of this move, The Show spoke with Muzaffar Chishti of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.
