First devised by the Trump administration, the expulsion policy weaponizes public health authority under Title 42 of the U.S. Code to effectively bar people from seeking asylum at the border – a flagrant violation of U.S. asylum
laws and
treaties, and the
constitution. While the Biden administration is processing some asylum-seeking families and adults at the border, it has blocked and expelled many to danger since January 2021. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) announced that it would use a new August 2021 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) order, which adopts much of the same flawed reasoning as prior CDC Title 42 orders issued under the Trump administration, to continue to block and expel people seeking protection in the United States – further embracing the Trump administration’s policy of misusing public health authority to evade refugee law.
Rather than adopt sensible
measures long
recommended by epidemiologists and public health
experts to
safely restart asylum processing,
the Biden administration has not only failed to end the expulsion policy but has escalated it. The administration is expanding the use of expulsion flights to transport migrants and asylum seekers long distances by plane to expel them far from where they entered the United States.