As of May 12, Title 42 has officially ended in the United States. This will cause big changes in the immigration policies and restrictions at the U.S.- Mexico border that is currently in place and has been since 2020. Title 42 is a public health policy that allows the United States to turn away immigrants at the southern border on the premise that they want to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the United States. This resulted in people being turned away over 2.8 million times. Families and children traveling alone were the only exceptions made. Title 42 was originally started during the Trump administration but was kept in place by President Biden’s administration. Biden originally wanted to end Title 42 in 2022 but was instead sued by Republicans who wanted to maintain border security.
COVID-19 restrictions ending is what allows Title 42 to end. The end of Title 42 is bringing in changes that are meant to encourage immigrants to apply for asylum online instead of illegally crossing the border. This online process is new and meant to expedite the immigration process which is infamously known to take years for immigration cases to get a hearing or see any progress. Under Biden’s changes, people who are seeking asylum will still be turned away if they didn’t apply online first or seek protection from the country that they traveled through. This new rule is opposed by advocacy groups like the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies since this same policy was first proposed by Trump and was rejected by the court at the time.
There are more specific regulations about who’s allowed in. 30,000 people from Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba will be allowed into the United States every month. They will be required to have a sponsor, arrive by air, and apply online beforehand. 100,000 from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala will be allowed in if they already have family here and apply online. Outside of these circumstances, 30,000 people from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Cuba will be sent back over the southern border. Since Biden wants to crack down on cracking the border illegally, families who cross illegally will be placed on a curfew, and the head of the household will be required to wear an ankle monitor for a month. Within 30 days, immigration officials will make a final decision on whether the family gets to stay in the United States or if they get deported.
There will also be immigration hubs across the Western Hemisphere where people can start the process to get placement in other countries like Canada and Spain. Hubs are planned to be in Guatemala and Columbia for now. These changes are very new and are meant to get the immigration system flowing however, there are groups concerned about the new policies in place. Many Americans and those seeking asylums are looking closely to see how these changes play out.
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