At 11:59 p.m. this Thursday, Washington time, Title 42 lost its effect on the lives of the thousands of migrants who arrive every day at the border that separates Mexico from the United States. It was a rule imposed by the Donald Trump Administration under the pretext of stopping the advance of the pandemic. It allowed the rapid expulsion of migrants, who were returned to Mexico in a matter of minutes. Its extinction opens a new era in migratory relations between both countries. And it leaves open a good number of questions that the Joe Biden Administration trusts will be clarified over the weeks.
That rule coexisted with Title 8, which governed alone for decades until March 2020. It was up to the immigration officers to decide whether to apply one rule or another. In practice, they had been mostly opting for Title 8 for weeks. Title 42 was only applied in 17% of cases, a border patrol agent informed EL PAÍS this Thursday in El Paso (Texas).
In the 2022 fiscal year, which runs from October to May, Title 8 was applied to more than 1.15 million detainees at the border, compared to just over 1.08 million for whom Title 42 prevailed.
The 8 supposes a tightening of the conditions to ask for asylum. It allowed the Barack Obama Administration to deport more than three million migrants in eight years. The regulation now incorporates new features: those who want to request asylum are forced to request it through a mobile application from their countries of origin, so that they travel with the certainty that they will be taken into consideration.
This obligation has been criticized by migrants, who consider it difficult to use and that it forces them to have good internet access, something that cannot always be taken for granted.
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If they arrive in the United States without having met that requirement or are not eligible for asylum, they will be deported. That deportation will imply a ban on trying again for at least five years. If they are caught trying to cross again in that time, they face prison terms in the United States. The deportations will be to their countries of origin, except in cases in which there are no agreements in this regard.
Those eligible for asylum in the United States will wait in a detention center while their application is processed. They must demonstrate that they are in a situation of “credible fear”, that is, that their lives are in danger wherever they come from.
Those who pass that test will be allowed to remain in the country while their cases go through the immigration courts. They receive a document with an appointment with a judge somewhere in the United States that allows them to travel freely throughout the country. Terms vary, from several weeks to several years. Currently, there are two million cases open, and magistrates specialized in migration issues are overwhelmed.
US officials hope the change will bring an increase in border crossings, which could reach 13,000 people a day, up from 6,000 on a busy day just a few weeks ago. This will also have consequences in the time that immigration officials have to spend to complete the processing. With Title 42, between 10 minutes and 30 minutes were enough to decide the expulsion. The process mandated by Title 8 rules increases that time to more than an hour.
This week, the United States also unveiled a new asylum rule that will largely bar migrants who passed through another country before reaching the border from seeking asylum in the United States. The rule, proposed earlier this year, understands that those people could have sought refuge in those places. Immigrants who secure an appointment through the CBP One app will be exempt.
The State Department also plans to open about 100 regional processing centers in the Western Hemisphere where immigrants can apply for acceptance into the United States, Canada or Spain. Little is yet known about how they plan to carry out these plans.
The combination of all these measures, a mix of providing more legal, albeit still limited, avenues and tightening border security to try to curb irregular crossings, is aimed at discouraging migrants from crossing the border illegally and preventing an unprecedented increase in those seeking asylum. Experts have certified a global trend that speaks of unprecedented growth in migratory movements.
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