24 MAR 2022

Groups Send Letter to President Biden On Discriminatory Use of Title 42 on Haitians, Central Americans, and Other Refugees and Asylum Seekers

87 Organizations Urge White House to Fully Revoke Title 42

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, over 80 organizations, representing health care and legal experts and children’s advocacy, immigrant rights’ and faith groups, sent a letter to President Biden and his administration, urging them to fully revoke Title 42. Led by the Haitian Bridge Alliance and the Immigration Hub, the groups denounced the contradictory use of the Trump-era policy, noting how the Biden administration has commendably made an exemption for Ukrainian refugees but allowed the continued use of Title 42 to expel other asylum seekers at the border, disproportionately impacting Haitian and Central American migrants fleeing persecution, torture and violent conflict.

Eighty-seven organizations signed the letter addressed to President Biden, Vice-President Harris,  Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Director of Domestic Policy Council for the White House, Susan Rice, Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, and National Security Advisory for the White House, Jake Sullivan. While the groups express relief for the Biden administration’s decisions to end Title 42 expulsion for unaccompanied minors and ensuring that Ukrainian refugees are able to claim asylum at ports of entry, they stress the “underlying basis for these decisions apply as forcefully to the Haitians, Central Americans, and other refugees at the southern border who are also seeking protection.” 

A report released by Human Rights First recorded nearly 10,000 kidnappings, assaults, rape and other attacks against migrants stranded in Mexico because of the Title 42 U.S. border policy since the start of the Biden administration. The use of this policy has generated the expulsions of migrants primarily from Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador – countries that are all facing the impacts of violent political conflicts and natural disasters. In fact, most families and individuals in 208 deportation flights to Haiti since January 2021 have been expelled under Title 42. Haitians are forced back to a country that is still trying to recover and rebuild from devastating natural disasters, and is now in an ongoing political crisis where gang violence is used as a political tool, and victims in entire neighborhoods often have no recourse to the justice system.

Reiterating the urgency of leading epidemiologists and public health experts who have disclosed that there is no public health rationale for shutting down the border to asylum seekers, the signatories point to the lack of justification to use Title 42 which is, on the contrary, increasing the risk of COVID-19 spread and infections. Title 42 has been weaponized to unreasonably deny Black and Brown migrants the right to claim asylum. As Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently stated, “Title 42 goes against everything that this country stands for.”

Excerpts of the letter include: 

Dear President Biden, Vice-President Harris,  Secretary Mayorkas, Amb. Rice, Advisor Sullivan, Secretary Blinken, and Dr. Walensky:

The undersigned organizations write to express our disappointment that the Administration is continuing to use Title 42 to expel families and single adults seeking protection from persecution and torture. Although we are relieved that you have published guidance exempting Ukrainians and an order excluding unaccompanied children from Title 42, the underlying basis for these decisions apply as forcefully to the Haitians, Central Americans, and other refugees at the southern border who are also seeking protection. The Trump administration weaponized the COVID-19 pandemic to justify the expulsion of asylum seekers to Mexico or their countries of origin without any assessment of their protection needs, in direct violation of domestic and international law, and the Biden administration has continued to rely on this fallacy. Since the enactment of Title 42, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has turned away refugees and asylum seekers more than one million times to places where their fate frequently includes kidnappings, rape, human trafficking, and violent armed assault. 

According to a new report, as of March 15, 2022, there were at least 9,886 documented reports of kidnapping, torture, rape, and other violent attacks on people blocked in or expelled to Mexico due to the Title 42 policy - all during the Biden-Harris administration. We urge the administration to terminate the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s TItle 42 order because of these reasons: there is no public health justification for the order, it is applied disproportionately to Black and brown immigrants, and those pushed back are returned to violent harm.

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Over the past two years, members of congress, specifically from the Congressional Black Caucus, have also called for the end of this policy. In February 2022, Representative Cori Bush and Senator Cory Booker led 100 of their colleagues in a letter urging President Biden to reverse inhumane immigration policies. The members of congress noted that “It is essential that we recommit ourselves to reversing anti-Black policies, including by adopting a human-rights centered approach to supporting immigrants and people seeking asylum in the United States.” 

This month, Representative Ayanna Pressley, who is co-chairing the Haiti Caucus, alongside Representative Mondaire Jones shared the same sentiment in a letter to the administration and called for the cessation of deportation flights and end of Title 42, writing that “there is no reason to believe Title 42 expulsions actually protect anyone’s health.” These sentiments were echoed by Majority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer who said, “Title 42 goes against everything that this country stands for.”

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If the administration’s goal is a humane, safe and fair immigration system, it is not meeting that goal. By continuing Title 42, the administration is doubling down on a discriminatory, inhumane immigration system. Given the current easing of the pandemic and the repeated exception of some populations for reasons that justify the termination of Title 42 for all, we expect the CDC to terminate the Title 42 order at its next 60-day review and the administration to restore access to asylum for all children, families, and adults seeking protection. 

Read the full letter and list of signatories.

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The Immigration Hub is a national organization dedicated to advancing fair and just immigration policies through strategic leadership, innovative communications strategies, legislative advocacy and collaborative partnerships.