The Biden administration is planning to end a controversial policy, known as Title 42, that allows the U.S. government to turn away asylum-seeking migrants over Covid-19 concerns.
Finally.
Title 42 was introduced during Donald Trump’s presidency. It was backed by then-Trump adviser Stephen Miller, the architect of some of Trump’s harshest immigration policies. Citing the policy’s cruelty, critics have condemned the Biden administration for upholding it.
Many Americans became familiar with the law after the Biden administration used it to justify turning away Haitian migrants seeking to enter the U.S. The imagery of border agents’ yanking the migrants by their collars and chasing them on horseback sparked public outrage, but the administration defied Democrats and progressive activists by keeping it in place.
“I continue to be disappointed — deeply disappointed — in the administration’s response,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on a call with reporters this month. “Title 42 goes against everything this country stands for.”
Last year, Schumer delivered a speech from the Senate floor calling on the administration to end “these hateful and xenophobic Trump policies that disregard our refugee laws.”
Some centrist and conservative lawmakers and governors have called for the policy to continue. But two dramatic changes in American life make that morally and practically indefensible.
To start, most states have drastically dialed back their Covid safety measures, from masking requirements to vaccination mandates. It makes no sense to turn away migrants seeking asylum out of fear of a virus that much of the country — lawmakers included — seems almost apathetic about at this point.








