Dell Dumont
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On May 11, the Biden administration lifted Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that shut down virtually all avenues for migrants to seek asylum in the US. President Joe Biden initially kept Title 42 in place after he took office, and then he tried to remove the policy in 2022. Republicans sued, arguing that restrictions were necessary for border security, and the courts consequently kept the rules in place. However, the Biden administration announced in January that it was ending national COVID-19 emergencies, forcing the lifting of Title 42’s border restrictions.
Title 42 refers to an emergency health authority previously based on a 1944 public health law that allowed the government to ban people or products from countries if they posed a “serious danger” of spreading a contagious disease. It was a holdover policy from President Donald Trump’s administration and began in Mar. 2020. It permitted US officials to turn away migrants who arrived at the US-Mexico border on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
The expiration of Title 42 along the US-Mexico border means that Title 8, a set of complex and decades-old immigration laws, now serves as the policy used to process all migrants and asylum-seekers who reach American soil. The Biden administration is now turning away anyone seeking asylum who didn’t first seek protection in a country they traveled through or who failed to apply online. This is similar to a Trump administration policy that the courts overturned.
US asylum law requires officials to, at the very least, give migrants who say they are fleeing danger an initial interview. Future migrants must complete screenings before their case moves to the immigration court system, but this process often takes years. In the case of long waits, the courts temporarily release migrants into the US to wait for their trial date.
US. officials plan to open 100 regional migration hubs across the Western Hemisphere, where people can seek placement in other countries, including Canada and Spain. There will be hubs in Colombia and Guatemala, but it’s unclear when more hubs will be fully functional. AUS Customs and Border Protection (CBP) offers a mobile app to help expedite the travel process when entering the US, helps customs brokers facilitate import inspections, and more. The app allows asylum seekers to submit their initial claims electronically, check their case status in real time, and receive notifications for scheduled interviews or immigration court hearings.