U.S. to accept asylum claims at southern border again next month after pandemic pause

The United States will end a sweeping, pandemic-related expulsion policy that has effectively closed down the U.S. asylum system at the border with Mexico, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Friday.

The Title 42 public health order will remain in effect until May 23, Mayorkas said in a statement.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which issued the order in March 2020 as countries around the world shuttered their borders amid COVID-19 fears, said it was no longer needed to limit the spread of the virus.

"After considering current public health conditions and an increased availability of tools to fight COVID-19 [such as highly effective vaccines and therapeutics], the CDC Director has determined that an order suspending the right to introduce migrants into the United States is no longer necessary," the CDC said in a separate statement.

Republican President Donald Trump's administration continued to renew Title 42 — a Second Word War-era public health measure on communicable diseases — until his time in office ended, with Democrat Joe Biden's administration keeping the measure in place for over a year since his inauguration.

The Biden administration had a Friday deadline whether to announce whether it would renew or end the practice, its justification seemingly waning by a relaxation of COVID mitigation measures nationwide.

The White House expects an influx of people to the border if Title 42, a COVID-era order that has blocked over a million migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, is lifted, communications director Kate Bedingfield said on Wednesday.

The Biden White House is planning for multiple contingencies around the policy, she said, without specifying.

Mayorkas said in his statement that more than 600 law enforcement officers have already been redeployed to the border.

"We have put in place a comprehensive, whole-of-government strategy to manage any potential increase in the number of migrants encountered at our border," Mayorkas said. "We are increasing our capacity to process new arrivals, evaluate asylum requests and quickly remove those who do not qualify for protection.

The administration will ramp up its vaccination program at the border, he added.

More than a million migrants have been expelled under the order since it was put in place in March 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the policy, U.S. border agents rapidly send people back to Mexico or other countries, often within hours after being apprehended, without giving them a chance to ask for refuge, a process human rights groups say unlawfully denies them access to asylum.

In a public plaza in Reynosa, Mexico, nearly 2,000 migrants are camping in tents or under tarps right across the U.S. border from McAllen, Texas. Most are from South and Central America and the Caribbean, and have fled violence or persecution in their home countries.

On Thursday morning, under a beating sun, about a dozen migrants lined up to see volunteer health workers in the camp. A group of women fried fish over an open flame and children ran around, playing with marbles, racing scooters and sweeping up trash.