The extension of Title 42 does not stop the migratory momentum to the US

The measure extended by former President Trump by the Supreme Court has been inefficient to control a border crisis that is still in force

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dealt a blow to President Joe Biden’s immigration policy by preventing the repeal of Title 42, the rule imposed by Donald Trump that allows the almost immediate expulsion of undocumented immigrants at the border. However, the extension of the measure could have a minimal effect in the crisis that is currently being experienced on the border between the United States and Mexico.

experts like Andrew Selee, president of the Institute for Immigration Policies, believe that the Supreme Court’s decision will mean a “tiny momentary relief” for the crisis on the border and that it will hardly be felt. Title 42 restrictions do not affect immigrants from countries like Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, or even India and Russia, which are arriving in large numbers. It is no longer just Mexicans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans who are fleeing the violence and misery in their countries.

According to data from the interim commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection office, Troy Miller“People from Mexico and northern Central America accounted for just 30% of encounters in November, a significant drop from the 53% they accounted for a year ago, as more migrants arrive from a variety of other countries, including Cuba and Nicaragua. “.

It is a fact that explains the long lines in El Paso, Texas, where thousands of people wait daily –up to 2,500 have been processed per day– to be given asylum in the US, knowing that they will not be expelled to Mexico as Trump intended. Their chances of staying in a shelter in Texas and then being sent with family members to other parts of the country are relatively good.

That is why the increase in the numbers in a record year of illegal migratory crossings: 2.4 million. In September, Border Patrol agents searched the arrival of 33,804 Venezuelans, a flow that has continued in October, November and December. The number of Colombians who tried to cross into the US has also skyrocketed in 2022, 2,000% compared to last year, the same case of migrants from India -407% more than in 2021-, of Russians (430%) and Nicaraguans fleeing the Daniel Ortega regime (227% more).

Only 29% of those deported in November were affected by Title 42, the rule that came into force in March 2020 and that was intended to stop the spread of the coronavirus at the border. A coalition of 19 republican states petitioned the Supreme Court to maintain the measure, convinced that “an unprecedented crisis on the border” would take place.

From the White House they insist that the measure, which should have expired on December 19, cannot remain in force permanently now that the pandemic seems shelved. the spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre indicated that since it is a public health measure, “Not an immigration control measure, it should not be extended indefinitely”. In the background, the much-touted immigration reform that the approximately 12 million undocumented people living in the US are still looking forward to and that Biden promised during his re-election campaign. For the moment, nothing has moved in Washington in this regard.