Demands end to Trump-era Title 42.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Legalization for All Network.
The Legalization for All Network condemns the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on December 27 to force the government to keep the terrible Trump-era ‘Title 42’ policy in place that closed the US-México border to asylum-seekers.
Trump invoked Title 42 more than two years ago, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to close the border to asylum-seekers attempting to present themselves at the US-México border to request asylum. It is a right under international law to request asylum and have that request considered. That has not happened at the US-México border since Title 42 was imposed.
Trump’s implementation of Title 42 at the US-México border has unjustly and indefinitely trapped desperate people in makeshift camps, parks and shelters on the México side of the border. Title 42 is supposed to be for public health emergencies, and Trump imposed it supposedly because of COVID-19. But what other federal COVID-19 restrictions remain in place other than Title 42? Clearly COVID-19 was just an excuse for Trump to attack immigrants. Asylum seekers pose no greater public health threat than any of the international travelers coming into the US daily by air, sea and land.
While racist, anti-immigrant politicians and media outlets fear-monger about a so-called crisis at the border, the real crisis at the border is the unjust and cruel harm that Title 42 and other border militarization policies inflict on children, adults, and families.
With the Supreme Court’s decision, Title 42 will now continue for the foreseeable future unless the Biden administration acts to end it.
While earlier a federal judge had ordered the Biden administration to end Title 42, Republican governors like Texas and officials from 19 states sued to stop this, which resulted in the Supreme Court’s decision December 27 to block the ending of Title 42. Trump appointed three of the current conservative majority Supreme Court justices.
The Legalization for All Network condemns the racist, anti-immigrant Republicans that sued to keep Title 42 in place. We condemn the Supreme Court for this racist, anti-immigrant decision, just one more in their ongoing assault on basic democratic rights.
We demand that despite the Supreme Court decision, the Biden administration take action to end Title 42 and other border militarization policies. We demand that they allow asylum-seekers to present themselves at the border and make their case for asylum, as is their right under international law.
The Legalization for All Network is organizing our second delegation to the US-México border in spring 2023. We plan to observe and document the effects of Title 42 and other border militarization policies and denounce the injustices we find.