The Coming End of Title 42

Summary

There’s an immigration crisis at the U.S. southern border, but that border could be all but erased if Title 42 were to end without the administration implementing equally effective enforcement policies.

Title 42 is the public-health order that directs the Border Patrol to expel border-jumpers without a hearing. Whether the U.S. can continue to rely on this public-health order to deal with the immigration crisis remains a question for the courts. In response to an application filed by a coalition of states, the Supreme Court has ordered that Title 42 stay in place until the Court considers whether those states should be allowed to appeal an order terminating Title 42.

On this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Andrew Arthur, the Center’s Fellow in Law and Policy, and Senior Legal Fellow George Fishman provide an overview and a comprehensive timeline of Title 42’s circuitous legal route, with predictions on the future of those public health orders and the corresponding effect they have had on the border.

Mark Krikorian, the Center’s Executive Director and host of the podcast, highlights how the Biden administration has used the public health order to maintain some modicum of operational control at the border, “and when it goes away, they’re going to have to face, and the public is going to have to face, the fact that this administration refuses to enforce the border.”

Fishman warns that, “until the immigration laws are fixed, in reality, unless it’s the mass use of Remain in Mexico, Title 42 is the silver bullet.”

In his closing commentary, Krikorian offers some thoughts on President Biden’s recent visit to El Paso and his recently announced immigration border plan. The new policy includes both “stick” and “carrot” approaches, neither of which are likely to stem the tide of migrants crossing the Southwest border.