The pandemic-era rule was put into place two years ago. It allowed immigration authorities to turn back asylum seekers entering the US, or it pushed them out quickly. Using Title 42, immigration officials have turned back or deported over 1.7 million people, mostly under the Biden administration.
Attorney Shaw Drake with the ACLU of Texas says he welcomes the decision by the CDC, calling it long overdue.
"Asylum seekers have the legal right to have those cases considered in the US system and this order has unlawfully blocked access to asylum at our border for over two years," Drake said.
Governor Abbott strongly opposes the move. In a statement, he wrote:
"President Biden’s open-border policies are an unmitigated disaster for national security. His recklessness has forced the State of Texas to take unprecedented steps to fill the gaps—including deploying Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and over 10,000 Texas National Guard soldiers, jailing illegal immigrants who are charged with trespassing, and becoming the first state ever to build a wall to secure the border." Abbott also wrote that Texas must "take even more unprecedented action to keep our communities safe by using any and all constitutional powers to protect its own territory."
Senator John Cornyn of Texas agrees. At a press conference, he said: "The Border Patrol tell me that if it expires without a plan being put into place to allow them to handle this volume of migrants, they will simply lose control of the border."
Drake says courts and doctors over the last two years have deemed Title 42 unnecessary.
"There is indication it was implemented in the first place by CDC under political pressure by the Trump administration," Drake said. "We're happy to see the CDC is finally following the science and following the true needs of public health."
The Department of Homeland Security Secretary in a statement said DHS will continue to expel single adults and families encountered at the border until the health order is lifted on May 23rd. The Biden administration is said to be implementing a COVID-19 vaccination program along the border.
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