Division among Biden appointees led U.S. to embrace Trump-era border policies

In early July, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) drafted a comprehensive nine-page plan to stop using a Trump-era pandemic policy to rapidly expel migrant families with children, according to internal government documents obtained by CBS News. 

But the plan was shelved after senior White House and DHS officials expressed concern about the risks of unwinding the expulsion policy, known as Title 42, when arrests of migrants had spiked to a 21-year high and the Delta variant of the coronavirus was spreading rapidly.

Instead, the Biden administration issued its own order defending the use of Title 42, which was first invoked by the Trump administration in March 2020 over the objections of some Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials. Since July, U.S. immigration officials have used Title 42 to expel more than 44,000 migrant parents and children traveling as families without allowing them to request humanitarian protection.