What is Title 8, and what has changed along the U.S.-Mexico border after Title 42's expiration?

The expiration of the Title 42 pandemic emergency rules along the U.S.-Mexico border on May 11 means that all migrants and asylum-seekers who reach American soil need to be processed under Title 8, a set of complex and decades-old immigration laws.

On paper, the processing of migrants who enter U.S. border custody has returned to pre-pandemic protocols. But the current levels of migration to the southern border are at historic highs, making the processing of migrants anything but normal.

Now that Title 42 is no longer in place, U.S. asylum law, which dates back to 1980, requires officials to, at the very least, give migrants who say they are fleeing danger an initial interview. That does not mean all migrants will be allowed to stay in the U.S.