Migrants attempting to enter the US from Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Africa and the Middle East face new barriers even after the end of the US’s Title 42 policy. In addition to increased restrictions under the Biden administration’s new immigration policies, politicians including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and New York City Mayor Eric Adams are trying to keep migrants from settling in their constituencies.
Title 42, the policy implemented under the Trump administration during the height of the Covid-19 crisis, allowed the government to expel migrants from the country without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum in the US, ostensibly to help stop the spread of Covid-19. That authority expired May 11, and Congress has failed to pass meaningful immigration reform despite concerns that the end of Title 42 would overwhelm immigration resources at the southern border.
Absent congressional action, previous immigration policy comes back into play — likely with tighter restrictions on seeking asylum and additional patchwork efforts to control the number of migrants at different points within Latin America. But state and local politicians are taking matters into their own hands, with Florida Gov. Ron Desantis saying at an event in Iowa Saturday that he would shut the border down and designate new funding to move migrants in Florida elsewhere in the country.
DeSantis and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas have dedicated funding to moving migrants out of their states before, to liberal enclaves like Martha’s Vineyard, Chicago, and New York City. But New York City Mayor Adams, a Democrat, is proposing similarly harsh measures to manage the migrants in his city — by either moving them to the suburbs north of the city, or housing them in an abandoned prison.
Title 42 is over. Now what?
Title 42, the public health order that expired Thursday, was originally conceived under the 1944 Public Health Policy Act, making it a public health rule — not…
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