On Friday, a federal court decided that the U.S. can no longer use a restrictive immigration rule first invoked by the Trump administration to expel families to countries where they may face persecution or torture, but still allowed the rule to stay in place.
The ruling, handed down from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, said that the supposed public health rule known as Title 42 “cannot expel [families] to places where they will be persecuted or tortured.” Families will now be given a chance to express their fears of being expelled to immigration officials, which most families couldn’t do before.
However, the ruling still allows the Biden administration to expel families that judges or asylum officers determine aren’t facing persecution or torture, as well as single adults, who have made up the majority of deportations under Title 42.
The Biden administration’s use of Title 42, which allows officials to deport asylum seekers under the guise of public health, have come under scrutiny from immigration advocates and even people within the administration. They say that President Joe Biden’s use of the policy, especially its use in deporting thousands of Haitian asylum seekers, is inhumane and potentially illegal.
Despite outcry from progressives in his party, Biden has decided to keep the policy in place and has deported more people under the rule than Donald Trump did. Despite the fact that Haiti is already designated by the Department of Homeland Security as a country that is unsafe for people to return to, the Biden administration has sent asylum seekers back to the country en masse.
Friday’s ruling upheld the restrictive policy, but questioned whether or not it should be revoked because it “looks in certain respects like a relic from an era with no vaccines, scarce testing, few therapeutics and little certainty.”
Progressive and Democratic lawmakers have been urging Biden to end the use of Title 42. On Saturday, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts) wrote, “This is an important victory in our fight to #EndTitle42, which has been weaponized against Black & brown migrants for far too long. It’s time for [Biden] to center the dignity and humanity of *all* migrants and that starts with ending Title 42.”
After Friday’s ruling, Biden administration officials gathered to discuss stopping the use of Title 42 altogether, according to the New York Times. It’s unclear if the administration has made a decision on the matter.
In February, a group of over 100 House representatives sent a letter to Biden urging him to end the use of Title 42 and other inhumane immigration policies that are often disproportionately used against Black migrants.
“Our country has a long history of inhumane treatment of Black migrants, which is particularly evident in the historic mistreatment of Haitians,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is time to undo the United States’ draconian immigration policies, particularly policies introduced under the Trump Administration, such as the use of Title 42, that circumvent our humanitarian obligations.”
Indeed, while Haitian asylum seekers have been deported despite the fact that Haitians in the U.S. can qualify for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) because of political and infrastructural instability in their home country, the Biden administration recently halted deportations of undocumented immigrants from Ukraine. Immigration advocates have pointed out that this is a clear double standard as Haitians face cruelty from border agents and the government.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 432 new monthly donors in the next 7 days.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy