As the Biden administration moves quickly to expel migrants camped under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, its plan depends on a controversial Trump-era policy put in place in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to speed up removals.
Thousands of migrants — many originally from Haiti — have been camped out in squalid conditions since last week. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas visited the site Monday and pledged to ramp up removal and expulsion flights of arriving migrants.
“If you come to the U.S. illegally, you will be returned,” Mayorkas said at a news conference. “Your journey will not succeed.”
That expulsion plan rests on a rarely used public health law known as Title 42. Immigration authorities say a public health order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allows them to expel migrants crossing the border quickly without giving them a chance to apply for asylum.
President Biden came into office promising a more humane immigration system. Yet his administration has continued to use the Title 42 policy — and defend it in court — despite mounting pressure from immigrant advocates.
