Title 42 expulsion

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (December 2023) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Title 42 expulsion" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (December 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A Title 42 expulsion is the removal by the U.S. government of a person who had recently been in a country where a communicable disease was present. The extent of authority for contagion-related expulsions is set out by law in 42 U.S.C. § 265. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under the Trump administration used this provision to generally block land entry for many migrants. This practice was initially continued by the Biden administration^[1] before the program was ended with the end of the COVID-19 national emergency on May 12, 2023. Title 42 of the United States Code includes numerous sections dealing with public health, social welfare, and civil rights, but, in the context of immigration, the phrase "Title 42" came to be used to refer specifically to expulsions under section 265.^{[citation needed]}

The program allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to prohibit the entry of persons who potentially pose a health risk by being subject to previously announced travel restrictions or by unlawfully entering the country to bypass health-screening measures.^{[2][3][4][needs update]} Persons subject to the order are not held in congregate areas for processing and are instead immediately expelled to their country of last transit.^[3] If they are unable to be returned to the country of last transit (because that country will not accept them due to their nationality), CBP will work with its interagency partners to expel the person to their country of origin.^[3] In some cases, this is not possible, and migrants may be expelled to a third country that will accept them based on previous residency.^[5] Expulsions under Title 42 are not based on immigration status and are tracked separately from immigration.^[3] At the discretion of the Presidential administration, Title 42 can be used even for people who would normally have temporary protected status based on their country of origin.^[6]

The CDC's policy under Title 42 was unenforceable from November 15, 2022, when D.C. federal judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled that the policy is a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act,^[7] until December 19 when the chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, issued a temporary hold on Sullivan's ruling,^[8] followed by the full court in a 5–4 vote on December 27.^[9] In the days preceding the policy's repeal on May 11, 2023, the number of migrants crossing the border increased. More than 10,000 illegal border crossers were apprehended daily between May 8 and 9, according to Brandon Judd, president of the Border Patrol union.^{[10][failed verification]}