The US to End Pandemic Order Blocking Asylum Seekers at Border
The US would end a sweeping COVID-19-related expulsion Order that closed the United States asylum system at the border with Mexico
Alejandro Mayorkas, the United States Homeland Security Secretary, said that the U.S. would end a sweeping COVID-19-related expulsion rule that has effectively closed the asylum system of the country at its border with Mexico. However, Mayorkas stated that the Title 42 public health policy will continue until 23rd May.
Previously, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued the order in March 2020 as nations globally closed their borders amid Coronavirus concerns. Now CDC said it was no longer needed to limit the virus spread. In another statement, the health agency stated after considering the increased availability of tools to combat Coronavirus and present health conditions.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that the US would end a sweeping COVID-19-related expulsion Order that closed the United States asylum system at the border with Mexico. pic.twitter.com/LGe5418ulO
On Wednesday, the official announcement came after news agencies reported details of the plan. Joe Biden, the President of the United States, kept Title 42 in place after taking office in the first month of last year despite intense criticism from his own Democratic party and campaign pledges to reverse the restrictive immigration policies of Donald Trump, his GOP predecessor.
The United Nations (U.N.), medical experts, and leading Democrats slammed Title 42, saying that it dismisses migrants as a danger in Mexico and that scientific evidence doesn’t support its specified aim of limiting the virus spread. On Thursday, many immigrants in an approximately two-thousand-person camp in Reynosa, Mexico, told Reuters that they were optimistic the policy would be reversed to claim asylum in the U.S officially.
Sharp Spike in Border Crossings
Earlier this week, senior officials of the Department of Homeland Security said that although they are getting ready to handle the sharp surge in border crossings, it remained doubtful whether withdrawing the pandemic-era order would boost migration.
The US to End Pandemic Order Blocking Asylum Seekers at Border Source: Web
This week, GOP leaders blasted the U.S. president after reports about the ending of the policy, saying reversing the COVID-19 restrictions would encourage more migrants to enter the country illegally when border crossings are already breaking previous records.
Furthermore, the Biden government rolled out a key bill last week to intensify asylum processing and deportation at the United States-Mexico border and set to be effective in late May.
COVID-19 Patient Numbers in U.S. Hospitals Reaches Record Low
Coronavirus hospitalization numbers fell to their lowest levels since the initial days of the virus. In addition, the number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 dropped by over ninety percent in more than the last sixty days. Some hospitals are going days without a single virus patient in intensive care units (ICU) for the first time since early 2020. Since the summer of 2020, hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients are now at their lowest point since comprehensive national statistics first became available.
