The Biden administration plans to end Title 42 in about a month; that’s the policy under which migrants arriving at the border can be expelled immediately from the U.S. without a hearing. A federal judge, though, has said he’d grant a motion to stop the administration’s action to end it on May 23.
Title 42 was put into place by the Trump administration under the rationale of protecting public health during the pandemic. But immigrant rights advocates have argued the policy denies migrants the right to seek asylum here — including those with credible claims. And Danilo Zak thinks Title 42 has been part of the larger problem at the border.
Zak is a policy and advocacy manager at the National Immigration Forum, a nonprofit advocating for immigrants and immigration. He says Title 42 hasn’t helped Border Patrol secure the border or manage a humane, orderly immigration system, and that there needs to be a quick response by the Biden administration at the border to replace it next month.
The Show spoke with Zak to learn how Title 42's end could benefit immigrants. The conversation started by talking about what Zak calls “perverse incentives” — that if migrants are immediately expelled, there’s no incentive for them to not come back.