Title 42 ends: Border policy that blocked migrants for three years expires
Anna Giaritelli Kaelan Deese
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BROWNSVILLE, Texas — A pandemic-era policy that allowed border officials to turn away millions of migrants for the last three years officially expired after 11:59 p.m. EDT Thursday, as federal and local officials prepared for a surge of border crossings to follow.
Put in place in March 2020 under the Trump administration, Title 42 blocked migrants from crossing the United States-Mexico border to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Border officials used that authority to deny migrants from crossing more than 2.8 million times.
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Without the authority in place, border towns braced for chaos on Friday and anticipated migrants that had been camping out in Mexico to rush toward the U.S. Texas activated a new Tactical Border Force, President Joe Biden sent 1,500 active-duty troops to the border, and cities such as El Paso and Brownsville declared an emergency.
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“I think now we’re getting down to D-Day,” Jose Sanchez, regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s western region, said in an interview hours before Title 42 expired.
This is a developing story and will be updated.