CDC orders Title 42 to wind down, saying expulsions of migrants are no longer needed
CBSN
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday it will stop authorizing U.S. border agents to expel migrants without asylum interviews on May 23, saying the expulsion policy, known as Title 42, is no longer necessary to control the spread of the coronavirus.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said she decided to terminate the order that authorized the border expulsions because of improving pandemic conditions, including increased vaccination rates in the U.S. and migrants' home countries and the drop in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations since the Omicron surge this winter.
"While the introduction, transmission, and spread of COVID-19 into the United States is likely to continue to some degree, the cross-border spread of COVID-19 due to covered noncitizens does not present the serious danger to public health that it once did, given the range of mitigation measures now available," Walensky wrote in her 30-page directive.
