Biden to Lift Pandemic Rule Restricting Immigrants at Land Border

THURSDAY, March 31, 2022 (HealthDay News ) -- An emergency health order that has curtailed immigration at U.S. land borders is expected to be lifted in late May.

An announcement about rescinding the order -- which has been in place since the start of the pandemic and is called Title 42 -- is expected by the Biden administration this week, people familiar with the issue told The New York Times.

The order was issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which will decide when to lift it. Once lifted, migrants entering the country to seek asylum will not be quickly turned back because of public health concerns. There's been growing pressure from human right advocates and Democratic members of Congress for the CDC to scrap the order.

Public health experts have said the order, meant to prevent migrants from spreading the coronavirus in the United States, has no grounding in science, especially at this point in the pandemic, the Times reported.

It's expected that doing so will increase the number of immigrants from Central America and other regions to the southwest border of the United States, where record numbers of people have been nabbed by border officials in recent months, the Times reported.

Homeland security officials this week described contingency plans for managing as many as 18,000 encounters a day at the border once the order is no longer in place, the Times reported. Working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, other federal agencies, and state and local officials, the department said it is prepared to have additional personnel, buses and planes, medical assistance and temporary facilities for processing immigrants.

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on Title 42.