The US government is set to lift a controversial immigration policy known as Title 42 that has blocked migrants caught at the US-Mexico border from seeking asylum since 2020. The Trump-era policy is set to expire on May 11 after which the officials expect a huge increase in the influx of migrants at the border. The policy, put in force during COVID-19, faced criticism for stopping immigrants from coming into the US. The policy has also become one of the talking points ahead of the 2024 elections.
What is Title 42?
The BBC said that the policy dates back to a 1944 law known as the Public Health Act, which granted US authorities power to prevent the spread of diseases.
When Covid-19 was first recognised as a threat in early 2020, the administration of then-president Donald Trump invoked Title 42 to cut off nearly all entry.
Title 42 allowed the Border Patrol to almost immediately expel border crossers back into Mexico or their origin countries without accepting their migration petitions.
When Joe Biden came into office in January 2021, he was pressured by supporters to ease or lift Title 42, since coronavirus vaccines had been introduced and testing was available. But Mr Biden kept it in place.
Why is it ending now?
Under Title 42, the US Customs and Border Protection has expelled more than two million people. As Covid cases went down, the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) signalled it would end the policy.
But its end got delayed several times as Republican-rules states in the US sought to keep the policy in place.
But now that Covid-19 measures are ending on May 11, time is finally up for Title 42.
How will the US manage migration now?
The Biden administration hopes a mix of incentives and punishments will prevent migrants from pushing across the border en masse after May 11.
One deterrent, they hope, will be the use of a different law, Title 8, according to news agency AFP.
Title 8 allows the expedited removal of someone who has violated US law in order to enter the country without documentation.
It has already been used against migrants in parallel with Title 42 in recent years.
It takes significantly longer to process an individual under Title 8 guidelines - an hour or more rather than a few minutes - and so it will be more unwieldy than Title 42.
After the policy ends, US officials are reportedly expecting arrivals to rise to more than 10,000 per day in May, up from about 5,000 in March.
Could US courts or Congress keep Title 42 in place?
News agency Reuters said that CDC tried in April 2022 to end Title 42, saying it was no longer needed to limit the spread of Covid-19 in light of vaccines and other medical advances.
But a federal judge in Louisiana blocked the termination after a challenge brought by two dozen US states with Republican attorneys general, who argued increased migration would saddle their states with costs.
The US Supreme Court removed a different Title 42 case from their argument calendar in February after the administration told them the order would end along with the Covid emergency. It is unknown whether legal battles could resume after May 11.
Separately, a bipartisan group of US senators are trying to pass a bill that would grant immigration authorities the power to expel migrants back to Mexico for another two years, though its prospects for passage are unclear.
