US relaxes border policy for unaccompanied migrant children

The government of the President of United States, Joe Bidenrelaxed a controversial border policy from the era of the former president donald trumpwhich means that the children migrants unaccompanied will not be deported from the country.

“The director of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is rescinding with respect to unaccompanied noncitizen children an Order under Title 42 that suspends the right to introduce certain persons into the United States,” they said. Saturday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“In effect, this means that unaccompanied noncitizen children will not be removed from the United States under the CDC order.”

The Title 42 order was issued by the CDC in March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and allowed US authorities to quickly remove migrant families caught crossing the US-Mexico border without the ability to seek refuge in the United States.

Since it took effect, immigrants have been turned away more than 1.6 million times under the policy, though some of those cases were people who crossed multiple times.

In a separate 21-page order justifying the decision to end Title 42 for unaccompanied children, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky cited the recent nationwide decline in COVID-19 cases and the increase in vaccination rates in the United States and in the countries of migrants traveling to the southern border.

Early in his presidency, Biden exempted unaccompanied children from the removal policy, but a federal judge in Texas ruled on March 4 that minors could not be excluded in a case brought by the state of Texas against the administration.

The ruling, which runs counter to another US district court order in 2020 blocking removals of unaccompanied children, has pressed the administration to consider whether to roll back the order altogether.