Washington. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced yesterday that they will end a policy that limited asylum at the US-Mexico border to prevent the spread of covid-19. . The decision is expected to attract more migrants to the common border.
The use of public health arguments was heavily criticized by Democrats and immigration advocates as an excuse for the United States to evade its obligations to provide refuge to people fleeing persecution.
The policy went into effect in March 2020, under then-President Donald Trump. Since then, 1.7 million rejections of migrants have been documented.
The policy, known as the Title 42 Authority derived from a 1944 sanitation law intended to prevent the spread of contagious diseases, will end on paper but will go into effect until May 23 to give border officials time to prepare. The change was first reported by The Associated Press in midweek. It was increasingly difficult to scientifically justify the policy, since the restrictions due to covid are being lifted in the United States.
The federal order says efforts by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide vaccines to migrants at the border will intensify over the next two months.
“After considering the current public health conditions and the greater availability of tools to combat covid-19 (such as highly effective vaccines and treatments), the director of the CDC determined that an order to suspend the right of access is no longer necessary. migrants entering the United States,” the CDC said in a statement.
Before the decision was officially announced, more than a dozen asylum seekers excitedly left their bedroom at the El Buen Samaritano shelter in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, to ask about the new procedures. The DHS indicated this week that some 7,100 foreigners on the move were arriving every day, compared with an average of about 5,900 daily in February: a rate that could match or exceed the highest levels of last year, 2019 and others. peak periods.
Border officials, however, anticipate as many as 18,000 people a day arriving in the area, and that would present a challenge to Democrats in disputed re-election races in border areas, some of whom warn that the Joe Biden administration is not prepared to face.
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