CDC will end sweeping order used to expel migrants at U.S. borders during Covid pandemic

Pedestrians wait to cross into the U.S. at the San Ysidro Port of Entry border crossing bridge in Tijuana, Mexico, on Sunday, March 20, 2022.

More than 1.7 million migrants have been deported from the US since the Covid-19 outbreak began, thanks to a public health order lifted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC will lift the order on May 23 to give the Department of Homeland Security time to scale up a program to provide vaccinations to migrants crossing into the U.S.

In March 2020 the Trump administration instituted an order under a public health law to stop the spread of Covid-19 across the nation's land borders with Mexico and Canada.

Title 42 is a blanket deportation policy that deprives people of the right to apply for asylum under U.S. and international law. The majority of the deportations have been done by the Biden administration.

The order was extended by the CDC under Biden in August as the delta variant swept the world. The CDC decided to keep order in place after the omicron variant caused an unprecedented wave of infections.

Dozens of leading health experts from across the U.S. condemned Title 42 as unjustifiable and no scientific basis as a public health measure. They argued that the U.S. can meet its humanitarian obligations by implementing masking and testing, and offering vaccine at the border.

The Biden policy was criticized by a top lawyer at the State Department when he left the administration.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has repeatedly called on Biden to withdraw Title 42. The policy should remain in place as the Department of Homeland Security prepares for an increase in border crossing.

In a letter this week, Sen Joe Manchin asked Walensky to extend Title 42 as the more contagious omicron BA.2 variant spreads around the world. The senator from Arizona shares a long border with Mexico and supports keeping the order in place.

Since the peak of the omicron surge in January, Covid infections and hospitalizations have plummeted and the CDC is easing public health measures. The warning system for cruise ships was ended this week.

The CDC said on Friday that 97 percent of people in the US don't need a mask.