The U.S. announced Thursday that it had renewed a controversial public health order that allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the southern border under the auspices of public health. Ex-President Donald Trump first put the order, known as Title 42, in place. Joe Biden’s administration, despite promising to roll back Trump’s severe restrictions on immigration, has elected to keep it in place multiple times. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted an internal review of the policy and announced its decision Thursday, citing a need to reduce COVID-19’s transmission in border detention facilities, according to CBS. Since the order went into effect in March 2020, 1.5 million migrants have been expelled without the chance to apply for asylum. A CDC spokesperson told CBS, “At this time, it remains in effect. The current reassessment examined the present impact of the pandemic throughout the United States and at the U.S. borders, taking special note of the surge in cases and hospitalizations since December due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.”
