Just minutes were left before a right-wing judge’s anti-child order was set to go into effect when the Biden administration announced late Friday that it would be ending Stephen Miller’s anti-asylum Title 42 policy as it pertains to unaccompanied children.
Just over a week ago, a right-wing judge appointed by the previous administration had ruled the current administration could no longer exempt asylum-seeking kids who’ve arrived to the U.S. without their parents from the policy. That order was set to go into effect at midnight when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it will not deport children under the policy, noting the “expulsion of unaccompanied noncitizen children is not warranted to protect the public health.”
“Because it is not warranted, and in recognition of the unique vulnerabilities of unaccompanied noncitizen children, CDC is immediately terminating the CDC Orders to the extent they apply to them,” the statement continued.
“In a separate 21-page order justifying the decision to end Title 42 for unaccompanied children, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky cited the recent nationwide decrease in COVID-19 cases, as well as increased vaccination rates in the U.S. and in the home countries of migrants who journey to the southern border,” CBS News reported.
Kids in Need of Defense said that the Biden administration “has taken a much-needed step in ensuring the protection of children seeking safety alone” by ending Title 42 as it pertains to children, while Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area CEO Kristyn Peck called it a “necessary step that recognizes the unique vulnerability of unaccompanied children.” Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley wrote that she was “relieved that these children will be spared the racist and xenophobic Title 42 policy.”
While advocates and lawmakers welcomed the announcement, the overwhelming consensus was that if the Biden administration can end the policy for one group of vulnerable people, it can, and should, end this policy for all vulnerable people.
“We are deeply disappointed in the Biden administration’s decision to maintain Title 42,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Cory Booker, and Sen. Alex Padilla said in a joint statement received by Daily Kos. “While we recognize that the administration made the right choice to prevent unaccompanied children from being expelled, it is wrong that they made the decision to continue sending families with minor children back to persecution and torture.”
The senators, who also urged Title 42’s termination in a recent press call, further said that “with vaccines and testing widely available, there is no public health benefit to sending asylum seekers back to harm.” The policy has in recent days also been used to block Ukrainian asylum-seekers. “I’m not asking for anything from the United States, just to be let in,” a mother who asked to be identified as “Sofia” told The San Diego Union Tribune. “All we need is to be safe. All we want is to keep our lives safe.”
“The truth is undeniable: there never was a public health justification for this racist and xenophobic policy created by Trump and continued by the Biden administration,” National Immigration Law Center Executive Director Marielena Hincapié said. That there was never really a public health justification for the policy is a fact confirmed under sworn testimony by a former CDC official. “Do you believe that that order was necessary to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the U.S. at that time, at this specific time, March 20, 2020?” former CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat was asked during congressional testimony. “No,” she replied.
“All people seeking safety and freedom in the United States, whether they are from Ukraine, Haiti, El Salvador, or elsewhere, deserve due process and full access to asylum, including at ports of entry,” Hincapié continued.
More than 300 organizations have in recent days also urged the Biden administration to end the order. “The Title 42 policy is a stain on the conscience of the United States,” they said. “Former and current government officials, members of Congress, federal courts, and UNHCR have sounded the same urgent alarm: the Title 42 policy violates domestic law and international treaty obligations to protect refugees from forced return to persecution and torture. The continued use of the Title 42 policy indelibly marks your administration as complicit in human rights abuses on a massive scale.”
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