Bruised by border politics, some Biden officials cling to Trump
restrictions
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[June 10, 2021]
By Kristina Cooke and Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jasibi says she fled
her hometown in Honduras after a gang killed her parents and gave her 24
hours to leave the country.
The 37-year-old headed north, hoping to seek asylum in the United
States, but earlier this year was blocked by a Trump-era health order
left in place by President Joe Biden. The order enables U.S. officials
to rapidly expel migrants at both the southern and northern borders
during the COVID-19 pandemic, essentially cutting off access to asylum
for most migrants.
In Mexico, with nowhere to go and few funds, she slept on the street and
was kidnapped, according to a request to the U.S. government for a
humanitarian exception to the order seen by Reuters. The kidnappers
wanted to extort money from her family, Jasibi said.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Jun/10/images/ads/current/charrons_bch041713.png)
Jasibi - who asked Reuters not to publish her surname for fear of
reprisals - called migrant advocate Ariana Sawyer at Human Rights Watch
daily to check on her application for the exemption. But when Sawyer
tried to call her last month with the good news that she would be
allowed into the United States, she couldn't reach her – Jasibi had been
kidnapped again.
Biden, who took office on Jan. 20, is under growing pressure from
migrant advocates, health experts and fellow Democrats to end the
policy, known as Title 42, as more evidence emerges that migrants are
being expelled into danger in Mexico.
Publicly, the Biden administration insists the order remains necessary
to limit the spread of the coronavirus, although it has not provided
scientific data to support that rationale and many public health experts
have opposed it.
Internally, however, some officials characterize the restrictions not as
a health measure but as a politically expedient tool to control the
border at a time when the administration is facing the most border
crossers in 20 years, according to five sources familiar with the
deliberations.
Even some more liberal Biden officials are apprehensive that any further
spike in migration after lifting the order could erode public support
for Biden's more welcoming immigration agenda, two of the sources said.
While advocates for migrants have expressed skepticism over the
administration's stated reasons for maintaining Title 42, this internal
view has not been previously reported.
A White House spokesperson said Title 42 was a public health directive,
not an immigration enforcement tool, and was still necessary on health
grounds, as only about 40% of the U.S. population has been fully
vaccinated. The White House declined to comment on the reports of
internal divisions in the administration.
Biden has filled many key immigration advisory positions with
high-profile migrant advocates, including some opponents of the Title 42
border restrictions.
For instance, Andrea Flores, a former deputy director for immigration
policy with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), is now director
for transborder security in Biden's National Security Council. Flores
criticized Title 42 last year while working for the ACLU, saying former
President Donald Trump was "hellbent on exploiting a public health
crisis to achieve his long-held goal of ending asylum at the border."
Flores did not respond to a request for comment. The White House
declined to comment.
Former advocates now in the administration are "all in a little bit of
an identity crisis," according to a U.S. official familiar with the
matter, who spoke about the emotional difficulty of implementing
policies that they would have fought against just months earlier.
The U.S. official also said that staff at the Department of Health and
Human Services refugee office have urged the White House to end the
expulsion policy, arguing that families are sending children across the
border alone since unaccompanied children are being allowed in.
As with others, the official requested anonymity to discuss the internal
debate.
Since Biden took office, U.S. border authorities have recorded more than
300,000 expulsions under Title 42. The vast majority of the expelled
migrants are Mexicans and Central Americans pushed back across the
border after attempting to cross illegally. Repeat crossings are common.
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![](../images/061021pics/news_A1.jpg)
Jasibi, who fled her hometown in Honduras after a gang killed her
parents and gave her 24 hours to leave the country, covers her face
while posing for a portrait in Texas, U.S., June 8, 2021.
REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare
![](../images/ads/current/centraldirect_lda_SPONSOR_2021.png)
CREDIBILITY 'TARNISHED'
The Title 42 health order, issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) in March 2020, allows for rapid
expulsion and effectively cuts off the ability of most single adults
and many families to claim asylum in the United States.
Many medical experts are vocally opposed to the policy. Dozens of
leaders of medical schools, hospitals and other institutions wrote
in a May 2020 letter to U.S. health officials that it was not
supported by scientific evidence.
Six health experts who signed that letter told Reuters that the
argument against the restrictions was even stronger now that many
Americans were vaccinated and COVID-19 caseloads were falling in the
United States.
"I think every day that Title 42 remains on the books, the CDC's
credibility is tarnished," said Joseph Amon, director of the office
of global health at Drexel University.
The CDC did not respond to requests for comment. A DHS official, who
asked to remain anonymous, said the department is working with the
CDC to determine when the policy and other pandemic-related border
restrictions could be safely lifted. The health agency would make
the final decision, the official stressed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Jun/10/images/ads/current/debbiesfloral_lda_MAY_2021.png)
U.S. officials have said the Title 42 border restrictions are partly
needed to protect government workers. More than three quarters of
frontline DHS workers have been vaccinated so far and all have been
offered a vaccine, DHS said.
Another stated reason is to guard against infected migrants
spreading the disease. While there are no overall figures on
positive coronavirus rates for migrants caught at the U.S.-Mexico
border, fewer than 0.5% of asylum seekers entering the United States
legally through a separate program have tested positive.
Amid the internal debate over how and when to end Title 42 and the
growing external pressure, the Biden administration has phased in a
number of exceptions to the policy, allowing more migrants into the
country.
In recent weeks the United States began admitting asylum seekers
whom migrant advocates had identified as being especially vulnerable
in Mexico.
"The number of people needing to go through this process is pretty
overwhelming," said Sawyer, the advocate with Human Rights Watch.
On June 1, Sawyer got a call from Jasibi, the Honduran woman who was
granted a humanitarian exception to the order. She had been
kidnapped while shopping at a market, she said, but escaped a few
days later, after her kidnappers left her alone in a house.
Sawyer told her she would be allowed to enter the United States, but
she would have to get to the Del Rio, Texas, port of entry - 56
miles (90 km) away - by the next day.
Jasibi got on a bus at 11 p.m. Without identity documents or legal
permission to travel in Mexico, she risked being detained by Mexican
police if stopped. Jasibi arrived in Ciudad Acuna, across the border
from Del Rio, at 3 a.m.
A few hours and a negative COVID-19 test later, she was in the
United States.
(Reporting by Kristina Cooke in San Francisco and Ted Hesson in
Washington, additional reporting by Mimi Dwyer in Los Angeles,
editing by Ross Colvin and Rosalba O'Brien)
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