How Title 42's expiration will reshape immigration policy at the U.S.-Mexico border

The termination of an emergency immigration restriction known as Title 42 will mark a major policy shift in how the U.S. processes migrants who reach the southern border, including those hoping to ask for asylum.

For over three years, since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. border officials under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden have cited Title 42 to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants to Mexico or their home countries on the grounds that their entry could contribute to the spread of the coronavirus.

While officially a public health measure, Title 42 has been used as a tool to manage and deter illegal border crossings, especially under the Biden administration, which has faced an unprecedented migration wave fueled in part by mass exoduses from crisis-stricken countries like Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.