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A federal appeals court ruled Friday the United States government can continue to expel migrants at the border but not to places where their safety or liberties are threatened.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in its decision the government could continue using Title 42 to expel migrants, but not if the attorney general decides a person's "life or freedom would be threatened" based on protected categories like race, religion, nationality, social group or political opinion. Though the decision is a small victory for Title 42's opponents, most have called for the policy's complete expulsion.
Title 42, implemented by the Trump administration on March 20, 2020, allows the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to prohibit entry into the U.S. if they believe migrants could bring a disease into the country, according to the American Immigration Council. Since then, the Biden administration has upheld this measure, citing public health concerns despite experts saying this would not lessen the threat of COVID-19 spread.
The recent decision comes after a group of migrants affected by the Title 42 measure and represented by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union challenged its legalities, Reuters reported.
In a statement, Doctors Without Borders said Title 42 has been invoked in more than 1.45 million migrant expulsions from the country since March 2020, with almost 1 million of those happening during the Biden administration.
Avril Benoît, executive director for Doctors Without Borders, called for the government to immediately rescind Title 42 in the statement, saying the U.S. moving toward decreasing COVID-19 restrictions while turning away migrants for public health concerns shows a "double standard."
"There has never been any legitimate public health justification for Title 42," she said. "Today, as the Biden administration moves toward a new approach to this pandemic, the CDC cannot credibly continue to renew this public health order."
According to Human Rights First, at least 8,705 people who had been expelled to Mexico under the policy have experienced atrocities like kidnapping, rape, human trafficking and torture. The Hill reported that under the ruling, the Department of Homeland Security will be required to conduct screenings to determine the kind of danger the migrant would be in if returned to their country of origin.
However, though the new decision does not allow the migrants in danger to be expelled to where they came from, that does not stop the government from expelling them elsewhere.
"[This ruling] does not make their presence here legal," the ruling said. "Nor does it give them a path to asylum. Nor does it stop the Executive from detaining them. Nor does it curb the Executive's power to expel them to a country where they will not be persecuted or tortured."
In a statement last week, Kennji Kizuka, associate director for research on refugee protection at Human Rights First, called on the CDC to completely eliminate Title 42.
"Not only does the CDC's Title 42 order fail to comply with U.S. asylum law and treaty obligations, but it is being used—every day—to turn away people seeking protection in the United States to suffer horrific harms," Kizuka said. "The CDC must end its complicity in these mass human rights abuses."
Update 03/04/22 4 p.m. ET: This story was updated to add more information.
