Trump administration reportedly working on return of Title 42

Looking to deny asylum seekers from entering the United States, the Trump administration is reportedly looking to reinstate the Title 42 public health emergency that was used during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dario Lopez-Mills/ap

The Trump administration is reportedly preparing a plan to reinstate the Title 42 public health emergency used to keep migrants from entering the country during the pandemic.

CBS News reported the administration could label migrants a public health risk and order border authorities to turn any asylum-seeker away.

Citing internal government documents it obtained, CBS News said the administration would contend that migrants could spread diseases like tuberculosis. Officials from the Department of Homeland Security and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Title 42 was a public health order implemented by President Donald Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic in his first term. President Joe Biden continued Title 42 until the COVID public health emergency ended in May 2023.

Even then, with hospitals overwhelmed by the pandemic, some argued Title 42 was a pretense for halting immigration, not halting the virus.

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a 2022 opinion during the legal fight over Title 42 that “the current border crisis is not a COVID crisis.”

Kevin R. Johnson, an expert in immigration law and policy at UC Davis, said Tuesday Trump now “seems to be bent on closing the borders, whatever the cost.”

Ernesto Sagás, an expert in politics and U.S. immigration policies who teaches at Colorado State University, previously said Trump built his political image on being an immigration hardliner. Trump campaigned on the promise of mass deportations and securing the southern border.

Since he took office about a month ago, Trump has taken a number of steps to make good on his promises, from stepped-up U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids to signing an executive order intended to end birthright citizenship.

On his first day in office, Trump issued a proclamation about protecting states against an “invasion at the southern border.” And he issued an executive order to suspend the U.S. refugee program.

Many of Trump’s immigration-related efforts face legal challenges. A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Trump’s effort to halt the refugee admissions system, The Associated Press reported.

“You certainly can infer that really the effort here isn’t to combat tuberculosis or anything like that but is to close the border at any cost,” Johnson said of the potential return of Title 42.

Asylum has more or less been shut off in the U.S. already, Johnson said.

Under the law, border officers are supposed to determine whether an asylum-seeker has a credible fear of persecution that requires further hearings.

But Johnson said asylum-seekers have been subjected to expedited removal without judicial review since Trump took office. Title 42 would be another way for the Trump administration to seal the border, Johnson said.

“It’s a fast and efficient way of denying entry in the country,” he said.

Border crossings have already fallen since Trump took office, without Title 42. The Department of Homeland Security said last week that daily border encounters have plunged 93%.

And Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said a 15-year low number of illegal immigrants were encountered along the southern border this past weekend.

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