October 14, 2025 • 34 mins
In the first of a four-part series, James discusses the last three years of immigration policy and what they mean for people seeking refuge in the USA.
Original Air Date: 5.30.23
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
You probably don't remember passage of Title forty two, let
alone that of Title forty two taped to six a
sub chapter two, Part G Section two sixty four. But
it's a part of US federal law that gives the
government the authority to take emergency action to keep communical
diseases out of the country. The portion, which allows a
sweeping disregard for asylum law passed in nineteen forty four,
(00:34):
reads in one giant run on paragraph sentences.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Follows, Whenever the Surgeon General determines that, by reason of
the existence of any communicable disease in a foreign country,
there is serious danger of the introduction of such disease
into the United States, and that this danger is so
increased by the introduction of persons or property from such
country that a suspension of the right to introduce such
persons and property is required in the interest of the
(00:58):
public health. The Surgeon General, in accordance with regulations approved
by the President, shall have the power to prohibit and
whole or in part, the introduction of persons and property
from such countries or places as he shall designate, in
order to avert such danger, and for such period of
time as he may deem necessary for such.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Purpose before President Donald Trump's administration used it on March twentieth,
twenty twenty. It had been used only in nineteen twenty
nine to keep ships from China and the Philippines from
entering US ports during the meningitis outbreak. But in March
of twenty twenty, when you probably weren't paying much attention
because the world was falling apart, or when I just
returned from a work trip to Rwanda, where I was
(01:36):
months before any precautions appeared in the USA screened for
a novel coronavirus. The Trump administration cited this public health
law in instructions to the Department of Homeland Security on
restrictions for migrants entering the United States. That very same day,
Center for Disease Control Director Robert R. Redfield relied on
(01:57):
this regulation to issue order suspending the introduction into the
United States of certain individuals who had been in quote
unquote coronavirus impacted areas and quote who would be introduced
into a congregate setting at the port of entry or
a border station. This includes individuals coming from Canada or
(02:18):
Mexico who would normally be detained by CBP after arriving
at the border, people including asylum seekers and accompanied children,
and people attending to enter the United States between ports
of entry, citing the new CDC order. That same day,
the border Patrol began expelling individuals who arrive at the
US Mexico border without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum.
(02:42):
Reports indicate the CDC scientists expressed opposition to the invocation
of Title forty two, arguing that there was really no
public health rationale to support it. Ever since then, public
health experts outside the CDC have continued to agree, arguing
that while international borders largely remain open to other travelers,
there is no need to turn away refugees and expel
(03:02):
them to their home countries or send them to Mexico.
Despite this, DHS has been applying Title forty two to
migrants for three years since then, and people have been
turned away without getting a chance to plead their case
for asylum three million times.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Trump is no longer president, but Title forty two has persisted.
It's actually persisted for much longer under Biden's watch two
years and four months than it did under Trump ten months.
But we'll get to that part later. First, let's look
at what this bureaucratic wrinkle does when it's supplied for
three years across the land border spanning three one hund
(03:39):
and forty five kilometers. That's nine hundred and fifty four
miles for the Americans listening at a time when climate change,
economic decline, and state and nonstate violence are driving more
and more people towards the USA's southern border in the
hope of a better life. We're talking about the Title
forty two this week because it ended on May eleventh.
(04:01):
In a sense, this marks an important change in immigration law,
but in a sense it doesn't. Immigration was complicated and
cruel for migrants and profitable for people on both sides
of the border before March of twenty twenty, and it's
the same after Title forty two has gone. But nonetheless,
Title forty two represented a distinct change in how asylum
works in the US, and, especially when combined with other
(04:22):
Trump policies that Biden has continued, a distinct change in
how many people die when coming to this country to
try and have a better chance at a save future.
By April of twenty twenty, Title forty two expulsions at
the border overtook the previous record for expulsions under the
so called Migrant Protection Protocol, which is better known as
(04:43):
Remain in Mexico, that was set in August of twenty nineteen.
Under an agreement reached with the Mexican government. In late
March of twenty twenty, the border Patrol began sending quote
unquote back to Mexico most Mexican but also guatemal and Honduranans,
families and seeingle adults encountered at the border. This group
(05:05):
of nationalities remained unchanged until May of twenty twenty two,
when the Biden administration came to an agreement with Mexico
to accept quote unquote thousands of Cubans and Nicaraguans sent
from the United States to Mexico. But this doesn't really matter.
You'll see that alone these episodes. Immigration law on the
ground and immigration law in Washington, DC are two very
(05:28):
different things. There has been extensive documentation of individuals expelled
to Mexico who do not fit within these nationalities, including
Haitian asylum seekers, some of whom I've spoken to myself.
People who are expelled are often driven by bus to
the nearest port of entry that's a land border crossing
and told to walk back to Mexico, often without their
(05:51):
luggage and other belongings. I've found that luggage and belongings,
including ID cards, clothing, and even little stuffed animals, all
along the border in the three years since Title forty
two has been in place. I asked my friend Paul
to describe what we found in Texas, and we've been
for a walk along the border wall during our time
reporting on the National Butterfly Center.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
There you'd find driver's licenses. I believe at one point
we found like an almost an information packet for like
it was for a teenager, a teenage girl. I remember
that because we got pictures of it. And then when
we took that long walk, remember we walked down the
border wall, it's two and a half mile walk something
(06:34):
like that. When we got to the very end of
the wall where the river was, there was just a
giant pile of people's stuff. And some of it was
obviously trash, you know, they were abandoning clothes after they
changed from crossing and stuff like that, but a lot
(06:56):
of it was full backpacks, a lot of ID documents
just in piles, just piles of them. Yeah, yeah, just
big piles of documents that proved who you were.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
The other thing we found with lattice, tons of them.
Apparently someone built a gazebo out of them. The wall
varies in design a bit along the border depending on
when and by whom it was built. But the trum
design has a flat anti climb plate at the top.
I'll let Paul describe how that's going.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
It was literally like somebody went to the hardware store
bought two of the longest or actually sorry, three of
the longest two by four as you could put two
of them beside each other, and then just nailed steps
up them, so you know, they were like sixteen twenty
feet long, and which was enough to just climb over
the wall like there weren't There weren't many places actually,
(07:52):
because most of the wall had that anti climb barrier
at the top. Whereas when you didn't have the anti
climb barrier, you didn't actually have something to set it against.
But once you put that on there, you could just
lean the ladder up against it. It's like self defeating.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Sometimes these expulsions are not as straightforward as a bus
to nearest port of entry. CVP has carried out what
are called lateral transfers by plane or bus, taking migrants
to another location along the border, to towns like San
Diego or Ol Paso, even if they entered in Arizona
or California. This leaves families stranded in the town where
(08:34):
they have no connections, no resources, and no community. Again,
these are people I've met. It won't have escaped. The
listeners attention that those planes and buses and other means
of detention and transport are indeed congregate settings, but that
doesn't seem to matter here. Title forty two didn't stop
people trying to come, but it made the journey more difficult.
(08:58):
Instead of crossing and trying to turn them selves in
for asylum or approaching a port of entry, people began
crossing in more remote places, places without border walls or barriers,
with less frequent border patrols. In twenty twenty, the Border
Patrol found two hundred and forty seven dead bodies along
the border. This is unlikely to represent the full human
(09:19):
toll of border enforcement. Many deaths in the desert go
unreported and undiscovered, but it gives some kind of point
of comparison for the twenty twenty one number. After a
year of Title forty two, five hundred and forty six
people died that year. In twenty twenty two, third year
of Title forty two, eight hundred and fifty seven people died.
(09:43):
None of those people were guilty of any crime other
than wanting a better life, but under Title forty two,
they lost their lives because the US didn't give them
a safe way to exercise the human right to claim asylum.
One local advocate, Hamaira Yusefi from a group called PANA,
the partner Ship for the Demands with New Americans, explain
what Title forty two have been like for her as
(10:04):
an advocate for asylum seekers.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
When the pandemic hit, we saw that Title forty two
heavily restricted those who were able to seek asylum in
this country. So while there was chaos happening and folks
around the world who were trying to come to the
United States for refuge, they were unable to do so.
(10:27):
And what this resulted in is people taking an even
more dangerous path right than before and going between the
ports of entries in order to try to seek refuge.
And so we have had hundreds of cases of individuals
who have gotten themselves injured, who the hospitals are calling
us because they've tried to cross and got injured, and
(10:48):
where we're trying to help them with getting some basic
legal services and immediate shelter and those types of things.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Since Biden took off his human rights first says, it's
identified more than thirteen thousand incidents of kidnapping, torture, rape,
or other violent attacks on people blocked or expelled to
Mexico and a title forty two. That's because it's easy
for violence to follow people who have no resources and
no community to protect them. It's for that reason that
(11:16):
you won't always see faces in my photographs at the border,
and that some of the names in this series have changed,
or perhaps we're just using someone's first name. It's also
for that reason they're not everyone at the border always
wants to talk. But we do have some interviews coming
up for you tomorrow. Here's a clip from a discussion
about this which I recorded the border last week.
Speaker 6 (11:36):
I'm trying to get people's faces, and that's what everybody's doings.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I can't speak to what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
That's what I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
I don't know about other people. You should ask. You
should if you think someone's taking a photo of you.
It's okay.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
I don't have a why.
Speaker 7 (11:52):
You know, I wish I could. Yeah, I could tell you.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
People who are subject to Title forty to expulsion are
not given an opportunity to contest their expulsion on the
ground so it would face persecution in the country to
which they would be expelled. There's a very limited exceptions
Title forty two for people who quote unquote spontaneously inform
CBP officers that they fear being tortured in the country
to which they will be expelled. However, in order to
(12:15):
receive an official screening by an asylum officer for exemption
under that provision, the CBP officer must first determine that
the claim is reasonably believable. From March twenty twenty through
September twenty twenty one, just two hundred and seventy two
people were granted the right to seek asylum under this exception.
The use of Title forty two has been despite the
relative lack of outrage sin sur Bide. The administration took
(12:36):
office bipartisan in twenty twenty one. A few weeks before
Bilen's inauguration, I spent some time talking to migrants at
the southern border for slate. Many of them had come
to a small, tense city that popped up just feet
from the pedestrian border crossing and the country that they
had traveled thousands of miles to get to, but that
they couldn't reach. You can see America through the fence there,
(13:00):
but you can't get there. The camp was diverse in
its composition. On one trip, I interviewed folks from Haiti, Honduras,
l Salbador, Guatemala, and Ethiopia. Here's what one of them
said to me when he asked his message to President Biden.
You recognize your voices Daniel's. That's because I don't have
his permission to use his voice.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Here we are appealing to President Biden. We aren't bad people.
Our goal is to work and get ahead in the
world for our children. We don't want to go back.
They will kill us, so we are here.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Some of them wore Biden T shirts, which I suspect
r actually a plant by a right wing a Jean
provocateur looking to make the new administration look weak. They
needn't really have bothered with all the effort. Biden would
do plenty in the next few months to make himself
look cruel and unkind. Before we talk about that, I
want to play you a clip from Biden's first press confidence. President.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
You just listed the reasons that people are coming talking
about in country problems, saying that it happens every year.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
You blamed the.
Speaker 6 (13:56):
Last administration, Sir. I just got back last night from
a recording trip to the border where I met nine
year old Jose, who walked here from Honduras by himself,
along with another little boy. He had that snout on
him and we were able to call his family. His
mother says that she sent her son to this country
(14:16):
because she believes that you are not deporting unaccompanied minors
like her son. That's why she's sent him alone from Honduras. So, Sir,
you blamed the last administration. But is your messaging and
saying that these children are and will be allowed to
stay in this country and work their way through this process,
encouraging families like joseis to come.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Well, look.
Speaker 7 (14:45):
The idea that I'm going to say, which I would
never do. If an unaccompanied child ends up at the border,
We're just gonna let him starve to death and stay
on the other side. No previous administrations dead either except Trump.
I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to
do it. That's why I've asked the Vice President of
(15:08):
the United States yesterday to be the lead person I'm
dealing with focusing on the fundamental reasons why people leave Honduras, Guatemala,
or Salvadora in the first.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Place in the coming months, some of which I covered
for an op ed in NBC about the Biden Administration's
cruel treatment of Haitian migrants. Things on the border didn't
get any better. Biden deported more Haitian people in a
few weeks than the Trump administration did in a year,
eight hundred and ninety five people reporting in twenty twenty
versus more than one two hundred people from January twentieth
(15:43):
to March twenty second, twenty twenty one. While making declarations
about showing compassion to migrants, the Biden administration packed Haitians
onto crowded planes and buses and sent them back to
Haiti in the middle of a pandemic. In March, the
US sent another pointed disinvitation to Haitians. The US Embassy
(16:04):
in Haiti tweeted a picture President Joe Biden looking off
into the distance with a caption in both English and
Haitian creole. In Creole, it read wing cardi sa bienki pavini.
The translation above it was.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I can say quite clearly, don't come over.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
In July of that year, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorcas,
himself a child of parents who fled from Cuba, said
the Haitians and Cubans fleeing unrest in their countries will
not find safety in the US, even if they have
a credible claim for asylum, and especially if they flee
by sea. In doing so, he was echoing statements to
the US broadcast from planes flying over Haiti following the
(16:46):
devastating earthquake in twenty ten. Following these announcements, the US
diverted resources so that it could have used to help
people from suffering in a country which have been destroyed
by a natural disaster, to stop them coming to this country.
He was also overlooking that under both international and domestic law,
asylum seekers are entitled to make claims no matter how
(17:08):
they enter the country. Here's what Mayoka said at his
press conference.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Allow me to be clear, if you take to the sea,
you will not come to the United States.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Part of this hardline is because of a perceived crisis
at the border. You don't have to go far on
Twitter dot com before you run into people like Fox
Newses Bill Malugan. Yep, the tampon in the coffee guy
is now a border reporter and he's shamelessly repeating CBP
statistics about apprehensions on the southern border. Here he is
talking to his buddy Tucker Carlson. Do you remember that guy?
Speaker 8 (17:39):
Bill Maluchin has covered the border more closely than any
reporter in the United States for the last two years,
and today, in his estimation, the single largest caravan of
illegal aliens flowing into this country in his two years
of watching crossed Today he broke the story. He's got
remarkable video for us. He's lad at the border now, Bill,
Great to see you. What did you see?
Speaker 9 (18:00):
Tucker can evening to you.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
You mentioned it right off the top.
Speaker 9 (18:02):
This was easily the biggest group we have ever seen
during our nineteen months of covering this border crisis. And
they all crossed illegally into El Paso last night, and
we got some pretty wild camera footage to show you.
Take a look at this. This was last night in
ol Paso. A massive caravan over one thousand illegal immigrants
crossing into El Paso last night. Local media they're reporting
(18:23):
it was potentially up to two thousand people and that
it was possibly the biggest mass crossing in the city's history. Now,
as you look at the video, you'll see just wave
after wave after wave of these people walking across the
river and then gathering on the US side of the
river where they kind of form a single file line.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
But it's not just Fox News doing this. You'll see
MPR and other more liberal outlets quoting these same statistics
without the necessary context. They're not lying. Apprehensions are higher,
but that is in some part because migrants are now
crossing more than once. In twenty nineteen, before Title forty
two went into effect, just seven percent of migrants apprehended
(19:02):
by the Border Patrol had previously been apprehended. The reapprehension
rate grew to twenty seven percent in fiscal year twenty
twenty two. This is because we're expelling people to places
where they have no hope of a better future and
not leaving them with many options other than to try
again in more remote and risky settings. Meanwhile, there's much
(19:23):
less concern from the right and from Democrats at the
fact that Ukrainians are exempted from Title forty two and
Russians and Ukrainians generally experience expedited processing of the sort
which one would hope this country could offer to other
people escaping conflicts around the world, including many that we started.
I asked my friend Gustavo Solis, a border investigative reporter
(19:44):
at KPBS in San Diego, to summarize the bid administration
to take on Title forty two.
Speaker 10 (19:49):
Now, on paper, the rationalists, there's a pandemic going on.
We need to stop or slow the spread of COVID nineteen.
So because of this extraordinary circumstance, we need Title forty
two to or up the border. That was bullshit, and
we know that now through reporting that it was total bullshit.
We know that from as early as twenty eighteen, Stephen Miller,
(20:12):
Trump's White House aid wanted to use Title forty two
to stop this type of migration. We know that Vice
President Mike Pence pressured the top doctors at the CDC
into doing this, basically saying, if you don't do this,
you might lose your job. Because even then, in March
twenty twenty, doctors at the CDC knew that there was
(20:33):
no real public health rationale for this. I mean, if
you look at the order, it's supposed to stop COVID,
but there weren't any exceptions for migrants who were vaccinated
or there was no testing component to it. So that's
kind of the beginning of Title forty two. By the
time Biden came in office, Biden had promised to end
it along with Roman in Mexico and restore the humane
(20:56):
asylum system, but he kept Title forty two place, and
he didn't just keep it in place, he expanded it
to include nationalities that weren't included when Trump first rolled
it out.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Even as a legal battle went back and forth, another
major bottleneck emerged in a migration system in the form
of never ending clusterfuck. That is the CBP one app. Again,
I'll let Gustavo explain his reporting here.
Speaker 10 (21:20):
It actually kind of started with the Ukrainians. That was
kind of how they started using it for the asylum context.
But CBP one is essentially a phone app for asylum,
and on paper it kind of makes sense, right instead of, like,
you know, Joe Biden and the Dems are really terrified
(21:41):
of the optics of a lot of people at the border,
and they a lot of their policy is revolved around
stopping that right. They don't want masses of people at
the border. The CBP one app aims to address that
by telling micros, hey, instead of coming all the way
to Mexico and showing up the border, just download this
app and schedule an appointment to come here, and we'll
(22:05):
let you to see if you're eligible for asylum or not.
Another example of a policy in Washington, DC that has
no reality in what's going on the border because migrants
live in shelters with really bad Wi Fi access, and
they have crappy phones. So what I found in the
(22:30):
reporting is that CBP one rewards people with the best phones,
not necessarily people who are most vulnerable. And the story
I came out with last week was about how data
from the Mexican government shows that at least in Tijuana,
about forty four percent of every migrant who has gotten
a CBP one application to enter the country is a
Russian national, and Russian nationals makeup at most ten percent
(22:55):
of the overall migrant population in Tijuana, So you have
this situation where a relatively affluent ten percent of the
population is getting almost half of these humanitarian protection appointments
that are designed for the world's most vulnerable people. And
that's what IFY one does like it. They call it
(23:15):
the ticketmaster of asylum and and that's not a compliment.
That is like ticketmaster fucking sucks. Nobody likes it.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I also spoke to Caba, an activist who participated a
mutual aid at the border. We talked about the app
because Caba has some professional insight into the technologies used.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
I do data science and machine running data thanks for
a living and the problem of building these systems trained
entirely on databases of white faces, and then the matin
working for people. You know, I think backgrounds is very
(23:52):
well known in this field. That is a very well
documented issue for more than a decade. And anyone who
could tell you that building a facial recognition or some
kind of a camera app that does image processing and
and I'm only training it on my faces, it looked
like that this is a This is not something that
I think any competent separate development has who would have
(24:14):
done and not expected. So I have a hard time
believing that the whole chain of everyone's had to go
through from the developers on up to you know, anyone
who does it or you know has authority of these
things at CBP or Homeland Security. This is just it's
(24:36):
it's it's like, I don't know, it's it's, it's it's
it's hard to believe that this was an ass.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Anyway, before we get too far from discussing things to
fucking suck is an advertising break, you might be wondering
why Title forty two is ending now and how we
got here, given that there seems to be a consensus
in DC that the border is in crisis, and that
(25:05):
that crisis is not that people were leaving to die
on the streets on the other side or in the
deserts of California and Arizona, but the people were allowing
to come to the richest country that's ever existed, from
countries that we've destabilized for decades to have a chance
of a decent life. Well, the answer is complicated. Some
of it's a bit too complicated for me to really
spend the time explaining, and you don't really need to
(25:27):
know the ins and outs of court cases to understand
that essentially, the Biden administration had planned to end Title
forty two in late twenty twenty two, right after the midterms.
Title forty two actually became theoretically unenforceable in November of
that year thanks to a court ruling, but the Supreme
Court in December prevented the Biden administration amending Title forty two,
(25:47):
while the Justice is considered a request by a group
of Republican led states that want to continue the expulsions,
which had previously been decared unlawful by lower court. Biden's
Department of Justice had previously defended Title forty two was
necessary to public health, but by the end of twenty
twenty two, they were ready to end enforcement a Title
forty two politically, even if they were nowhere near prepared
(26:08):
on the ground. A coalition of Republican led states, however,
managed to get a federal judge in Louisiana to prevent
officials fromending Title forty two, saying the Biden administration and
did not taken adequate steps required to terminate the policy. Then,
on November fifteenth, another federal judge declared Title forty two
are lawful, saying the CDC had not properly explained the
policy's public health rational or considered its impact on asylum seekers.
(26:32):
At the request of the Biden administration, the judge gave
border officials five weeks until December the twenty first to
end Title forty two nineteen. Republican led States asked several
courts to delay Title forty two's resisioned indefinitely, warning that
chaos would otherwise ensue. After their request was denied by
lower courts, the States asked a Supreme Court to intervene.
(26:53):
On December twenty seventh, the Supreme Court said it would
suspend the lower court order that found Title forty two
to be illegal until it decid I did whether the
Republican led States should be allowed to intervene in the case.
That's some Christmas spirit for you. Eventually, with the end
of the federal emergency over COVID nineteen, Title forty two
just kind of went away. Customs and Border Protection, the
(27:14):
federal agency which put up the most staunch resistance to
vaccine mandates, would begin processing migrants under Title eight of
US immigration law on the eleventh of May twenty twenty three.
I'll let them summarize what they see this to mean.
According to the USCIS website, individuals who unlawfully cross the
Southwest border will generally be processed under Title eight Expedited
(27:36):
Removal Authorities in a matter of days. They will be
barred from re entry to the United States for at
least five years if ordered removed, and they will be
presumed ineligible for asylum under the proposed Circumvention of Lawful
Pathways regulation absent and applicable exception. What this means is,
if you cross into the United States not at the pordamentry,
(28:00):
you will be assumed ineligible for asylum and the process
to remove you from the United States will begin immediately.
You have a chance to file a defensive asylum claim
against that, but the process can be rushed and more difficult.
Despite this and having almost three years to repair, they
were by no means ready, let's hear from Gustavo again. Gustavo,
(28:22):
can you explain to us a little bit about what
you found that by the administration has been planning for
the end of Title forty two.
Speaker 11 (28:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (28:32):
What I found is they haven't really been doing much planning, right,
I mean, they talk about I think with Title forty two,
it's a clear example of immigration policy being decided in Washington,
and no one really from the border being involved or
told what's going on. So, like I think it was
last week the HS Secretary Majorca did this press release
(28:57):
about what they're doing in terms of processing centers in
Guatemala and Columbia so people can just go there instead
of coming all the way to the border, which actually
there have been timelines of when those will open. But
they had asked all these things for like big picture things, right,
to stop people from coming in the first place, Expanding
some legal pathways, like making it easier for people with
(29:19):
families already here to get sponsors, fixing some of the
little things with CVP one, but they don't talk about
like on the ground logistics right. So for example, I
went to Tijuana to talk to the head of the
Department of Migrant Affairs there who told me this, and
I checked with him yesterday morning, who said, still to
(29:42):
this day, less than forty eight hours before Title forty
two ends, he doesn't know how many migrants CBP will
allow to cross through the ports of entry in Sandy Erro.
His guess is that maybe two hundred, because that's kind
of the number that they floated around in December when
they originally wanted to get rid of Title forty two
before their lawsuit, and if it's two hundred, he basically said,
(30:05):
Tijuana's going to be screwed because two hundred doesn't even
cover the number of new migrants coming in and deporties
being sent to Tijuana. So it's gonna like, we have
this bottleneck of migration in Tijuana and all over the
border because of Title forty two for the last three years,
no one's been able to move. And if they just
open it up to two hundred people, that's not really
(30:27):
going to address any of the bottleneck.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Right There's like, I think, is it sixteen thousand people
are waiting like an asylum application right now?
Speaker 10 (30:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 11 (30:36):
Yeah, I hear different numbers throwing around, like ten, thy, fifteen, sixteen,
and nobody really knows because there's like a network of
official shelters, and there's a bunch of unofficial shelters, and
there's a bunch of Russian dudes staying in hotels in airbnbs.
But I think, yeah, tens of thousands. I think sixteen
is an accurate number.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I think it's intructive here to listen to the Fox
News coverage of this and how much Secretary my Orcus
tries to panda to them.
Speaker 10 (31:01):
I want to be very clear, our borders are not open.
Speaker 12 (31:05):
Homeand Security Secretary Alejandro Majorcis says when Title forty two
expires at midnight tonight, anyone who arrives at the southern
border will be presumed ineligible for asylum and face consequences.
But withholding facilities already overwhelmed, the administration is ratcheting up
tough rhetoric while also clearing the way for mass releases
into US communities with no way for authorities to track people.
(31:27):
You said at the beginning that you've prepared for this
moment for almost two years. So why is part of
that plan and honor system?
Speaker 8 (31:36):
Oh, it is not an honor system.
Speaker 10 (31:37):
They are a subject of our apprehension efforts.
Speaker 12 (31:40):
But under parole release authorized by the US Border Patrol
Chief last night, migrants do not receive an alien registration
number for authorities to track them. They don't even get
a court date. Instead, migrants are asked to turn themselves
into Ice within sixty days to start immigration proceedings on themselves.
Speaker 8 (31:57):
The American people are watching this. They know what they see.
They say, a wide open border.
Speaker 12 (32:01):
Florida's Attorney General is suing the administration, arguing the parole
plan is identical to a policy a federal judge struck
down earlier this year.
Speaker 11 (32:09):
You have confidence in the lawfulness of our actions.
Speaker 12 (32:11):
Plans to release migrants at bus stops, gas stations, and
supermarkets was first detailed last year, according to a memo
uncovered by the Florida Legal Proceedings. Today, Texas Governor Greg
Abbott sent a busload of migrants to the Vice President's residents.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Greg Abbott's disgusting antics acide. There was a real attempt
by the Biden aministration to come through Republican side on
migration that we can see clearly here. In the hours
before we expected Title forty two to die. Folks like
me who cover the border made plans the day before.
On the tenth, Majorcas announced the Title forty two would
(32:46):
be enforced up until eleven fifty nine pm Eastern time,
and in San Diego, border patrol offices closed down the
port of entry at Sandy Sedra, the border town just
south of San Diego, for a training exercise in which
they lined up in front of the cars waiting to
cross the border with plexiglass shields and ryotgear. Meanwhile, In
(33:08):
between the two thirty footboard offenses that divide Sanisidarra from Tijuana,
Board of Patrol began corraling migrants. Afghans, Colombians, Vietnamese, Koreans
and Golan Sudanese, Tagiks and Congolese people all shared little
more than a few tarps and cardboard boxes for shelter
as they waited for something to happen. Despite having months
(33:31):
to repair and years to plan, it appears at Department
of Homeland Security totally failed to create so much as
a scrap of shade or shelter, and instead chose to
house people detain pending processing in the open air. In
tomorrow's episode, we'll hear from some of them.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
It Could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 12 (33:53):
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
cool zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the
iHeartRadio app, apple Pot Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated
monthly at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening
You probably don't remember passage of Title forty two, let
alone that of Title forty two taped to six a
sub chapter two, Part G Section two sixty four. But
it's a part of US federal law that gives the
government the authority to take emergency action to keep communical
diseases out of the country. The portion, which allows a
sweeping disregard for asylum law passed in nineteen forty four,
(00:34):
reads in one giant run on paragraph sentences.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Follows, Whenever the Surgeon General determines that, by reason of
the existence of any communicable disease in a foreign country,
there is serious danger of the introduction of such disease
into the United States, and that this danger is so
increased by the introduction of persons or property from such
country that a suspension of the right to introduce such
persons and property is required in the interest of the
(00:58):
public health. The Surgeon General, in accordance with regulations approved
by the President, shall have the power to prohibit and
whole or in part, the introduction of persons and property
from such countries or places as he shall designate, in
order to avert such danger, and for such period of
time as he may deem necessary for such.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Purpose before President Donald Trump's administration used it on March twentieth,
twenty twenty. It had been used only in nineteen twenty
nine to keep ships from China and the Philippines from
entering US ports during the meningitis outbreak. But in March
of twenty twenty, when you probably weren't paying much attention
because the world was falling apart, or when I just
returned from a work trip to Rwanda, where I was
(01:36):
months before any precautions appeared in the USA screened for
a novel coronavirus. The Trump administration cited this public health
law in instructions to the Department of Homeland Security on
restrictions for migrants entering the United States. That very same day,
Center for Disease Control Director Robert R. Redfield relied on
(01:57):
this regulation to issue order suspending the introduction into the
United States of certain individuals who had been in quote
unquote coronavirus impacted areas and quote who would be introduced
into a congregate setting at the port of entry or
a border station. This includes individuals coming from Canada or
(02:18):
Mexico who would normally be detained by CBP after arriving
at the border, people including asylum seekers and accompanied children,
and people attending to enter the United States between ports
of entry, citing the new CDC order. That same day,
the border Patrol began expelling individuals who arrive at the
US Mexico border without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum.
(02:42):
Reports indicate the CDC scientists expressed opposition to the invocation
of Title forty two, arguing that there was really no
public health rationale to support it. Ever since then, public
health experts outside the CDC have continued to agree, arguing
that while international borders largely remain open to other travelers,
there is no need to turn away refugees and expel
(03:02):
them to their home countries or send them to Mexico.
Despite this, DHS has been applying Title forty two to
migrants for three years since then, and people have been
turned away without getting a chance to plead their case
for asylum three million times.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Trump is no longer president, but Title forty two has persisted.
It's actually persisted for much longer under Biden's watch two
years and four months than it did under Trump ten months.
But we'll get to that part later. First, let's look
at what this bureaucratic wrinkle does when it's supplied for
three years across the land border spanning three one hund
(03:39):
and forty five kilometers. That's nine hundred and fifty four
miles for the Americans listening at a time when climate change,
economic decline, and state and nonstate violence are driving more
and more people towards the USA's southern border in the
hope of a better life. We're talking about the Title
forty two this week because it ended on May eleventh.
(04:01):
In a sense, this marks an important change in immigration law,
but in a sense it doesn't. Immigration was complicated and
cruel for migrants and profitable for people on both sides
of the border before March of twenty twenty, and it's
the same after Title forty two has gone. But nonetheless,
Title forty two represented a distinct change in how asylum
works in the US, and, especially when combined with other
(04:22):
Trump policies that Biden has continued, a distinct change in
how many people die when coming to this country to
try and have a better chance at a save future.
By April of twenty twenty, Title forty two expulsions at
the border overtook the previous record for expulsions under the
so called Migrant Protection Protocol, which is better known as
(04:43):
Remain in Mexico, that was set in August of twenty nineteen.
Under an agreement reached with the Mexican government. In late
March of twenty twenty, the border Patrol began sending quote
unquote back to Mexico most Mexican but also guatemal and Honduranans,
families and seeingle adults encountered at the border. This group
(05:05):
of nationalities remained unchanged until May of twenty twenty two,
when the Biden administration came to an agreement with Mexico
to accept quote unquote thousands of Cubans and Nicaraguans sent
from the United States to Mexico. But this doesn't really matter.
You'll see that alone these episodes. Immigration law on the
ground and immigration law in Washington, DC are two very
(05:28):
different things. There has been extensive documentation of individuals expelled
to Mexico who do not fit within these nationalities, including
Haitian asylum seekers, some of whom I've spoken to myself.
People who are expelled are often driven by bus to
the nearest port of entry that's a land border crossing
and told to walk back to Mexico, often without their
(05:51):
luggage and other belongings. I've found that luggage and belongings,
including ID cards, clothing, and even little stuffed animals, all
along the border in the three years since Title forty
two has been in place. I asked my friend Paul
to describe what we found in Texas, and we've been
for a walk along the border wall during our time
reporting on the National Butterfly Center.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
There you'd find driver's licenses. I believe at one point
we found like an almost an information packet for like
it was for a teenager, a teenage girl. I remember
that because we got pictures of it. And then when
we took that long walk, remember we walked down the
border wall, it's two and a half mile walk something
(06:34):
like that. When we got to the very end of
the wall where the river was, there was just a
giant pile of people's stuff. And some of it was
obviously trash, you know, they were abandoning clothes after they
changed from crossing and stuff like that, but a lot
(06:56):
of it was full backpacks, a lot of ID documents
just in piles, just piles of them. Yeah, yeah, just
big piles of documents that proved who you were.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
The other thing we found with lattice, tons of them.
Apparently someone built a gazebo out of them. The wall
varies in design a bit along the border depending on
when and by whom it was built. But the trum
design has a flat anti climb plate at the top.
I'll let Paul describe how that's going.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
It was literally like somebody went to the hardware store
bought two of the longest or actually sorry, three of
the longest two by four as you could put two
of them beside each other, and then just nailed steps
up them, so you know, they were like sixteen twenty
feet long, and which was enough to just climb over
the wall like there weren't There weren't many places actually,
(07:52):
because most of the wall had that anti climb barrier
at the top. Whereas when you didn't have the anti
climb barrier, you didn't actually have something to set it against.
But once you put that on there, you could just
lean the ladder up against it. It's like self defeating.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Sometimes these expulsions are not as straightforward as a bus
to nearest port of entry. CVP has carried out what
are called lateral transfers by plane or bus, taking migrants
to another location along the border, to towns like San
Diego or Ol Paso, even if they entered in Arizona
or California. This leaves families stranded in the town where
(08:34):
they have no connections, no resources, and no community. Again,
these are people I've met. It won't have escaped. The
listeners attention that those planes and buses and other means
of detention and transport are indeed congregate settings, but that
doesn't seem to matter here. Title forty two didn't stop
people trying to come, but it made the journey more difficult.
(08:58):
Instead of crossing and trying to turn them selves in
for asylum or approaching a port of entry, people began
crossing in more remote places, places without border walls or barriers,
with less frequent border patrols. In twenty twenty, the Border
Patrol found two hundred and forty seven dead bodies along
the border. This is unlikely to represent the full human
(09:19):
toll of border enforcement. Many deaths in the desert go
unreported and undiscovered, but it gives some kind of point
of comparison for the twenty twenty one number. After a
year of Title forty two, five hundred and forty six
people died that year. In twenty twenty two, third year
of Title forty two, eight hundred and fifty seven people died.
(09:43):
None of those people were guilty of any crime other
than wanting a better life, but under Title forty two,
they lost their lives because the US didn't give them
a safe way to exercise the human right to claim asylum.
One local advocate, Hamaira Yusefi from a group called PANA,
the partner Ship for the Demands with New Americans, explain
what Title forty two have been like for her as
(10:04):
an advocate for asylum seekers.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
When the pandemic hit, we saw that Title forty two
heavily restricted those who were able to seek asylum in
this country. So while there was chaos happening and folks
around the world who were trying to come to the
United States for refuge, they were unable to do so.
(10:27):
And what this resulted in is people taking an even
more dangerous path right than before and going between the
ports of entries in order to try to seek refuge.
And so we have had hundreds of cases of individuals
who have gotten themselves injured, who the hospitals are calling
us because they've tried to cross and got injured, and
(10:48):
where we're trying to help them with getting some basic
legal services and immediate shelter and those types of things.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Since Biden took off his human rights first says, it's
identified more than thirteen thousand incidents of kidnapping, torture, rape,
or other violent attacks on people blocked or expelled to
Mexico and a title forty two. That's because it's easy
for violence to follow people who have no resources and
no community to protect them. It's for that reason that
(11:16):
you won't always see faces in my photographs at the border,
and that some of the names in this series have changed,
or perhaps we're just using someone's first name. It's also
for that reason they're not everyone at the border always
wants to talk. But we do have some interviews coming
up for you tomorrow. Here's a clip from a discussion
about this which I recorded the border last week.
Speaker 6 (11:36):
I'm trying to get people's faces, and that's what everybody's doings.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I can't speak to what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
That's what I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
I don't know about other people. You should ask. You
should if you think someone's taking a photo of you.
It's okay.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
I don't have a why.
Speaker 7 (11:52):
You know, I wish I could. Yeah, I could tell you.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
People who are subject to Title forty to expulsion are
not given an opportunity to contest their expulsion on the
ground so it would face persecution in the country to
which they would be expelled. There's a very limited exceptions
Title forty two for people who quote unquote spontaneously inform
CBP officers that they fear being tortured in the country
to which they will be expelled. However, in order to
(12:15):
receive an official screening by an asylum officer for exemption
under that provision, the CBP officer must first determine that
the claim is reasonably believable. From March twenty twenty through
September twenty twenty one, just two hundred and seventy two
people were granted the right to seek asylum under this exception.
The use of Title forty two has been despite the
relative lack of outrage sin sur Bide. The administration took
(12:36):
office bipartisan in twenty twenty one. A few weeks before
Bilen's inauguration, I spent some time talking to migrants at
the southern border for slate. Many of them had come
to a small, tense city that popped up just feet
from the pedestrian border crossing and the country that they
had traveled thousands of miles to get to, but that
they couldn't reach. You can see America through the fence there,
(13:00):
but you can't get there. The camp was diverse in
its composition. On one trip, I interviewed folks from Haiti, Honduras,
l Salbador, Guatemala, and Ethiopia. Here's what one of them
said to me when he asked his message to President Biden.
You recognize your voices Daniel's. That's because I don't have
his permission to use his voice.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Here we are appealing to President Biden. We aren't bad people.
Our goal is to work and get ahead in the
world for our children. We don't want to go back.
They will kill us, so we are here.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Some of them wore Biden T shirts, which I suspect
r actually a plant by a right wing a Jean
provocateur looking to make the new administration look weak. They
needn't really have bothered with all the effort. Biden would
do plenty in the next few months to make himself
look cruel and unkind. Before we talk about that, I
want to play you a clip from Biden's first press confidence. President.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
You just listed the reasons that people are coming talking
about in country problems, saying that it happens every year.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
You blamed the.
Speaker 6 (13:56):
Last administration, Sir. I just got back last night from
a recording trip to the border where I met nine
year old Jose, who walked here from Honduras by himself,
along with another little boy. He had that snout on
him and we were able to call his family. His
mother says that she sent her son to this country
(14:16):
because she believes that you are not deporting unaccompanied minors
like her son. That's why she's sent him alone from Honduras. So, Sir,
you blamed the last administration. But is your messaging and
saying that these children are and will be allowed to
stay in this country and work their way through this process,
encouraging families like joseis to come.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Well, look.
Speaker 7 (14:45):
The idea that I'm going to say, which I would
never do. If an unaccompanied child ends up at the border,
We're just gonna let him starve to death and stay
on the other side. No previous administrations dead either except Trump.
I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to
do it. That's why I've asked the Vice President of
(15:08):
the United States yesterday to be the lead person I'm
dealing with focusing on the fundamental reasons why people leave Honduras, Guatemala,
or Salvadora in the first.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Place in the coming months, some of which I covered
for an op ed in NBC about the Biden Administration's
cruel treatment of Haitian migrants. Things on the border didn't
get any better. Biden deported more Haitian people in a
few weeks than the Trump administration did in a year,
eight hundred and ninety five people reporting in twenty twenty
versus more than one two hundred people from January twentieth
(15:43):
to March twenty second, twenty twenty one. While making declarations
about showing compassion to migrants, the Biden administration packed Haitians
onto crowded planes and buses and sent them back to
Haiti in the middle of a pandemic. In March, the
US sent another pointed disinvitation to Haitians. The US Embassy
(16:04):
in Haiti tweeted a picture President Joe Biden looking off
into the distance with a caption in both English and
Haitian creole. In Creole, it read wing cardi sa bienki pavini.
The translation above it was.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I can say quite clearly, don't come over.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
In July of that year, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorcas,
himself a child of parents who fled from Cuba, said
the Haitians and Cubans fleeing unrest in their countries will
not find safety in the US, even if they have
a credible claim for asylum, and especially if they flee
by sea. In doing so, he was echoing statements to
the US broadcast from planes flying over Haiti following the
(16:46):
devastating earthquake in twenty ten. Following these announcements, the US
diverted resources so that it could have used to help
people from suffering in a country which have been destroyed
by a natural disaster, to stop them coming to this country.
He was also overlooking that under both international and domestic law,
asylum seekers are entitled to make claims no matter how
(17:08):
they enter the country. Here's what Mayoka said at his
press conference.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Allow me to be clear, if you take to the sea,
you will not come to the United States.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Part of this hardline is because of a perceived crisis
at the border. You don't have to go far on
Twitter dot com before you run into people like Fox
Newses Bill Malugan. Yep, the tampon in the coffee guy
is now a border reporter and he's shamelessly repeating CBP
statistics about apprehensions on the southern border. Here he is
talking to his buddy Tucker Carlson. Do you remember that guy?
Speaker 8 (17:39):
Bill Maluchin has covered the border more closely than any
reporter in the United States for the last two years,
and today, in his estimation, the single largest caravan of
illegal aliens flowing into this country in his two years
of watching crossed Today he broke the story. He's got
remarkable video for us. He's lad at the border now, Bill,
Great to see you. What did you see?
Speaker 9 (18:00):
Tucker can evening to you.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
You mentioned it right off the top.
Speaker 9 (18:02):
This was easily the biggest group we have ever seen
during our nineteen months of covering this border crisis. And
they all crossed illegally into El Paso last night, and
we got some pretty wild camera footage to show you.
Take a look at this. This was last night in
ol Paso. A massive caravan over one thousand illegal immigrants
crossing into El Paso last night. Local media they're reporting
(18:23):
it was potentially up to two thousand people and that
it was possibly the biggest mass crossing in the city's history. Now,
as you look at the video, you'll see just wave
after wave after wave of these people walking across the
river and then gathering on the US side of the
river where they kind of form a single file line.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
But it's not just Fox News doing this. You'll see
MPR and other more liberal outlets quoting these same statistics
without the necessary context. They're not lying. Apprehensions are higher,
but that is in some part because migrants are now
crossing more than once. In twenty nineteen, before Title forty
two went into effect, just seven percent of migrants apprehended
(19:02):
by the Border Patrol had previously been apprehended. The reapprehension
rate grew to twenty seven percent in fiscal year twenty
twenty two. This is because we're expelling people to places
where they have no hope of a better future and
not leaving them with many options other than to try
again in more remote and risky settings. Meanwhile, there's much
(19:23):
less concern from the right and from Democrats at the
fact that Ukrainians are exempted from Title forty two and
Russians and Ukrainians generally experience expedited processing of the sort
which one would hope this country could offer to other
people escaping conflicts around the world, including many that we started.
I asked my friend Gustavo Solis, a border investigative reporter
(19:44):
at KPBS in San Diego, to summarize the bid administration
to take on Title forty two.
Speaker 10 (19:49):
Now, on paper, the rationalists, there's a pandemic going on.
We need to stop or slow the spread of COVID nineteen.
So because of this extraordinary circumstance, we need Title forty
two to or up the border. That was bullshit, and
we know that now through reporting that it was total bullshit.
We know that from as early as twenty eighteen, Stephen Miller,
(20:12):
Trump's White House aid wanted to use Title forty two
to stop this type of migration. We know that Vice
President Mike Pence pressured the top doctors at the CDC
into doing this, basically saying, if you don't do this,
you might lose your job. Because even then, in March
twenty twenty, doctors at the CDC knew that there was
(20:33):
no real public health rationale for this. I mean, if
you look at the order, it's supposed to stop COVID,
but there weren't any exceptions for migrants who were vaccinated
or there was no testing component to it. So that's
kind of the beginning of Title forty two. By the
time Biden came in office, Biden had promised to end
it along with Roman in Mexico and restore the humane
(20:56):
asylum system, but he kept Title forty two place, and
he didn't just keep it in place, he expanded it
to include nationalities that weren't included when Trump first rolled
it out.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Even as a legal battle went back and forth, another
major bottleneck emerged in a migration system in the form
of never ending clusterfuck. That is the CBP one app. Again,
I'll let Gustavo explain his reporting here.
Speaker 10 (21:20):
It actually kind of started with the Ukrainians. That was
kind of how they started using it for the asylum context.
But CBP one is essentially a phone app for asylum,
and on paper it kind of makes sense, right instead of, like,
you know, Joe Biden and the Dems are really terrified
(21:41):
of the optics of a lot of people at the border,
and they a lot of their policy is revolved around
stopping that right. They don't want masses of people at
the border. The CBP one app aims to address that
by telling micros, hey, instead of coming all the way
to Mexico and showing up the border, just download this
app and schedule an appointment to come here, and we'll
(22:05):
let you to see if you're eligible for asylum or not.
Another example of a policy in Washington, DC that has
no reality in what's going on the border because migrants
live in shelters with really bad Wi Fi access, and
they have crappy phones. So what I found in the
(22:30):
reporting is that CBP one rewards people with the best phones,
not necessarily people who are most vulnerable. And the story
I came out with last week was about how data
from the Mexican government shows that at least in Tijuana,
about forty four percent of every migrant who has gotten
a CBP one application to enter the country is a
Russian national, and Russian nationals makeup at most ten percent
(22:55):
of the overall migrant population in Tijuana, So you have
this situation where a relatively affluent ten percent of the
population is getting almost half of these humanitarian protection appointments
that are designed for the world's most vulnerable people. And
that's what IFY one does like it. They call it
(23:15):
the ticketmaster of asylum and and that's not a compliment.
That is like ticketmaster fucking sucks. Nobody likes it.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I also spoke to Caba, an activist who participated a
mutual aid at the border. We talked about the app
because Caba has some professional insight into the technologies used.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
I do data science and machine running data thanks for
a living and the problem of building these systems trained
entirely on databases of white faces, and then the matin
working for people. You know, I think backgrounds is very
(23:52):
well known in this field. That is a very well
documented issue for more than a decade. And anyone who
could tell you that building a facial recognition or some
kind of a camera app that does image processing and
and I'm only training it on my faces, it looked
like that this is a This is not something that
I think any competent separate development has who would have
(24:14):
done and not expected. So I have a hard time
believing that the whole chain of everyone's had to go
through from the developers on up to you know, anyone
who does it or you know has authority of these
things at CBP or Homeland Security. This is just it's
(24:36):
it's it's like, I don't know, it's it's, it's it's
it's hard to believe that this was an ass.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Anyway, before we get too far from discussing things to
fucking suck is an advertising break, you might be wondering
why Title forty two is ending now and how we
got here, given that there seems to be a consensus
in DC that the border is in crisis, and that
(25:05):
that crisis is not that people were leaving to die
on the streets on the other side or in the
deserts of California and Arizona, but the people were allowing
to come to the richest country that's ever existed, from
countries that we've destabilized for decades to have a chance
of a decent life. Well, the answer is complicated. Some
of it's a bit too complicated for me to really
spend the time explaining, and you don't really need to
(25:27):
know the ins and outs of court cases to understand
that essentially, the Biden administration had planned to end Title
forty two in late twenty twenty two, right after the midterms.
Title forty two actually became theoretically unenforceable in November of
that year thanks to a court ruling, but the Supreme
Court in December prevented the Biden administration amending Title forty two,
(25:47):
while the Justice is considered a request by a group
of Republican led states that want to continue the expulsions,
which had previously been decared unlawful by lower court. Biden's
Department of Justice had previously defended Title forty two was
necessary to public health, but by the end of twenty
twenty two, they were ready to end enforcement a Title
forty two politically, even if they were nowhere near prepared
(26:08):
on the ground. A coalition of Republican led states, however,
managed to get a federal judge in Louisiana to prevent
officials fromending Title forty two, saying the Biden administration and
did not taken adequate steps required to terminate the policy. Then,
on November fifteenth, another federal judge declared Title forty two
are lawful, saying the CDC had not properly explained the
policy's public health rational or considered its impact on asylum seekers.
(26:32):
At the request of the Biden administration, the judge gave
border officials five weeks until December the twenty first to
end Title forty two nineteen. Republican led States asked several
courts to delay Title forty two's resisioned indefinitely, warning that
chaos would otherwise ensue. After their request was denied by
lower courts, the States asked a Supreme Court to intervene.
(26:53):
On December twenty seventh, the Supreme Court said it would
suspend the lower court order that found Title forty two
to be illegal until it decid I did whether the
Republican led States should be allowed to intervene in the case.
That's some Christmas spirit for you. Eventually, with the end
of the federal emergency over COVID nineteen, Title forty two
just kind of went away. Customs and Border Protection, the
(27:14):
federal agency which put up the most staunch resistance to
vaccine mandates, would begin processing migrants under Title eight of
US immigration law on the eleventh of May twenty twenty three.
I'll let them summarize what they see this to mean.
According to the USCIS website, individuals who unlawfully cross the
Southwest border will generally be processed under Title eight Expedited
(27:36):
Removal Authorities in a matter of days. They will be
barred from re entry to the United States for at
least five years if ordered removed, and they will be
presumed ineligible for asylum under the proposed Circumvention of Lawful
Pathways regulation absent and applicable exception. What this means is,
if you cross into the United States not at the pordamentry,
(28:00):
you will be assumed ineligible for asylum and the process
to remove you from the United States will begin immediately.
You have a chance to file a defensive asylum claim
against that, but the process can be rushed and more difficult.
Despite this and having almost three years to repair, they
were by no means ready, let's hear from Gustavo again. Gustavo,
(28:22):
can you explain to us a little bit about what
you found that by the administration has been planning for
the end of Title forty two.
Speaker 11 (28:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (28:32):
What I found is they haven't really been doing much planning, right,
I mean, they talk about I think with Title forty two,
it's a clear example of immigration policy being decided in Washington,
and no one really from the border being involved or
told what's going on. So, like I think it was
last week the HS Secretary Majorca did this press release
(28:57):
about what they're doing in terms of processing centers in
Guatemala and Columbia so people can just go there instead
of coming all the way to the border, which actually
there have been timelines of when those will open. But
they had asked all these things for like big picture things, right,
to stop people from coming in the first place, Expanding
some legal pathways, like making it easier for people with
(29:19):
families already here to get sponsors, fixing some of the
little things with CVP one, but they don't talk about
like on the ground logistics right. So for example, I
went to Tijuana to talk to the head of the
Department of Migrant Affairs there who told me this, and
I checked with him yesterday morning, who said, still to
(29:42):
this day, less than forty eight hours before Title forty
two ends, he doesn't know how many migrants CBP will
allow to cross through the ports of entry in Sandy Erro.
His guess is that maybe two hundred, because that's kind
of the number that they floated around in December when
they originally wanted to get rid of Title forty two
before their lawsuit, and if it's two hundred, he basically said,
(30:05):
Tijuana's going to be screwed because two hundred doesn't even
cover the number of new migrants coming in and deporties
being sent to Tijuana. So it's gonna like, we have
this bottleneck of migration in Tijuana and all over the
border because of Title forty two for the last three years,
no one's been able to move. And if they just
open it up to two hundred people, that's not really
(30:27):
going to address any of the bottleneck.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Right There's like, I think, is it sixteen thousand people
are waiting like an asylum application right now?
Speaker 10 (30:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 11 (30:36):
Yeah, I hear different numbers throwing around, like ten, thy, fifteen, sixteen,
and nobody really knows because there's like a network of
official shelters, and there's a bunch of unofficial shelters, and
there's a bunch of Russian dudes staying in hotels in airbnbs.
But I think, yeah, tens of thousands. I think sixteen
is an accurate number.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I think it's intructive here to listen to the Fox
News coverage of this and how much Secretary my Orcus
tries to panda to them.
Speaker 10 (31:01):
I want to be very clear, our borders are not open.
Speaker 12 (31:05):
Homeand Security Secretary Alejandro Majorcis says when Title forty two
expires at midnight tonight, anyone who arrives at the southern
border will be presumed ineligible for asylum and face consequences.
But withholding facilities already overwhelmed, the administration is ratcheting up
tough rhetoric while also clearing the way for mass releases
into US communities with no way for authorities to track people.
(31:27):
You said at the beginning that you've prepared for this
moment for almost two years. So why is part of
that plan and honor system?
Speaker 8 (31:36):
Oh, it is not an honor system.
Speaker 10 (31:37):
They are a subject of our apprehension efforts.
Speaker 12 (31:40):
But under parole release authorized by the US Border Patrol
Chief last night, migrants do not receive an alien registration
number for authorities to track them. They don't even get
a court date. Instead, migrants are asked to turn themselves
into Ice within sixty days to start immigration proceedings on themselves.
Speaker 8 (31:57):
The American people are watching this. They know what they see.
They say, a wide open border.
Speaker 12 (32:01):
Florida's Attorney General is suing the administration, arguing the parole
plan is identical to a policy a federal judge struck
down earlier this year.
Speaker 11 (32:09):
You have confidence in the lawfulness of our actions.
Speaker 12 (32:11):
Plans to release migrants at bus stops, gas stations, and
supermarkets was first detailed last year, according to a memo
uncovered by the Florida Legal Proceedings. Today, Texas Governor Greg
Abbott sent a busload of migrants to the Vice President's residents.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Greg Abbott's disgusting antics acide. There was a real attempt
by the Biden aministration to come through Republican side on
migration that we can see clearly here. In the hours
before we expected Title forty two to die. Folks like
me who cover the border made plans the day before.
On the tenth, Majorcas announced the Title forty two would
(32:46):
be enforced up until eleven fifty nine pm Eastern time,
and in San Diego, border patrol offices closed down the
port of entry at Sandy Sedra, the border town just
south of San Diego, for a training exercise in which
they lined up in front of the cars waiting to
cross the border with plexiglass shields and ryotgear. Meanwhile, In
(33:08):
between the two thirty footboard offenses that divide Sanisidarra from Tijuana,
Board of Patrol began corraling migrants. Afghans, Colombians, Vietnamese, Koreans
and Golan Sudanese, Tagiks and Congolese people all shared little
more than a few tarps and cardboard boxes for shelter
as they waited for something to happen. Despite having months
(33:31):
to repair and years to plan, it appears at Department
of Homeland Security totally failed to create so much as
a scrap of shade or shelter, and instead chose to
house people detain pending processing in the open air. In
tomorrow's episode, we'll hear from some of them.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
It Could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 12 (33:53):
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
cool zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the
iHeartRadio app, apple Pot Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated
monthly at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening
It Could Happen Here News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Evans
Garrison Davis
James Stout
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