Biden Under Pressure Over ‘Public Health’ Border Expulsions

The president faces a balancing act: how to keep his pledge of a more compassionate approach to migrants while managing a surge of people at the border amid a pandemic.

WASHINGTON — President Biden is coming under increasing pressure to abandon a Trump-era immigration rule that has sealed off the United States to most migrants during the pandemic, with human rights officials and two of the administration’s own medical consultants saying the measure endangers vulnerable families. The policy, known as Title 42, allows border agents to turn away migrants at the southern border without giving them a chance to apply for protections in the United States. The order justifies the expulsions as a health measure to prevent the coronavirus from spreading in holding facilities. On Monday, two physicians who work as consultants for the Department of Homeland Security sent a letter to members of Congress saying the rule has had the “perverse impact” of encouraging parents to send their children to cross the border alone, since Mr. Biden has chosen not to immediately turn away minors and instead is processing them into the United States. Most single adults and many migrants traveling together as a family, however, continue to be immediately turned around.