0:05

Later this week, a Trump-era

0:07

border policy is coming to an end. It's

0:10

called Title 42. It

0:12

basically allows the government to take an

0:14

asylum seeker, someone who says, you know,

0:17

I need safety, and for us to say,

0:19

actually, no, and we just send you back to Mexico,

0:22

where you're home country. That's our colleague

0:24

Michelle Hackman. She says Title 42,

0:27

solved an issue Republican lawmakers

0:30

had long seen as a problem. For

0:33

years, we've had these surges

0:35

of migrants coming across the border because

0:37

they're asking for asylum. And that

0:39

kicks off a whole process where we

0:42

have to give them court dates to hear their asylum

0:45

claims. That takes years. You know, in

0:47

the meantime, they're able to live in the United States.

0:50

Signs at the once-bustling port dwindled

0:53

drastically after the U.S. banned non-essential

0:55

travel at the border.

0:56

So it allows agents to quickly

0:59

return people back to Mexico after

1:01

they cross the border illegally under this Title 42

1:03

authority.

1:04

The majority of people encountered

1:07

at the border were rejected under Title 42

1:09

and sent back.

1:12

So when this was first announced, it was

1:14

like totally decried by

1:16

every Democrat in the party as a

1:19

total betrayal of our asylum obligations,

1:22

as this Trump-era sort of evil tool.

1:24

And here we are three years later, you know,

1:27

Title 42 is finally coming to an end.

1:31

As Title 42 comes to an end, a

1:34

new immigration policy is set to take

1:36

its place. But the system

1:39

that Joe Biden has proposed to replace it

1:41

is, you know, roughly Title 42 in

1:44

all but name.

1:47

Welcome

1:47

to The Journal, our show about

1:50

money, business, and power. I'm

1:52

Kate Leinbach. It's Tuesday, May 9th.

2:01

Coming up on the show, Title 42

2:04

is ending, but Biden's new immigration

2:06

policy isn't

2:07

so different.

2:16

The scientists of today are creating

2:18

the next big thing. On

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The Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything podcast,

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get an early listen to what tomorrow has in

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you get your podcasts.

2:37

For years, most of the people coming

2:40

to the U.S. through the southern border have

2:42

been asylum seekers. People

2:44

who say they feel unsafe in their own countries.

2:48

So

2:49

asylum dates back to World

2:51

War II when Jews

2:53

were trying to flee Nazi Germany and there's this

2:55

really famous incident in the late 1930s

2:58

when a sort of boat full of Jews

3:00

came to America and U.S. officials actually

3:02

turned the boat away and sent them back to

3:04

Germany. There was a lot of guilt

3:07

about how Western nations

3:09

handled Jewish refugees, and

3:12

that led to the modern system of refugees

3:14

and asylum.

3:17

In the U.S., Congress passed laws

3:19

protecting the right to seek asylum after

3:21

crossing a border illegally. And

3:24

over the years, the number of people seeking

3:26

asylum in the U.S. grew. And

3:28

they weren't trying to evade capture, trying

3:31

to sneak themselves in. They were like crossing the

3:33

border, walking up to the first Border

3:35

Patrol agent they found and saying, can you please arrest

3:37

me? I need asylum. This

3:40

was an issue that Donald Trump focused

3:42

on when he was running for president.

3:44

We're going to build the wall. We have no choice. We

3:47

have no choice. Build that wall.

3:50

Build that wall. Build that wall.

3:52

Build that wall.

3:55

When he became president, Trump sought

3:57

to find ways to tighten immigration. And

4:01

in 2019, his advisors batted

4:03

around an idea they called Title 42.

4:07

It's named for a section of the U.S. legal

4:09

code that deals with public health. It

4:12

actually was an idea even before

4:14

the pandemic started. Stephen

4:16

Miller, who was former President Donald Trump's

4:18

senior immigration advisor, had been looking

4:21

for different ways to turn away asylum

4:23

seekers at the border. He couldn't do that

4:25

using regular immigration laws. And

4:28

so he found this sort of provision in public

4:30

health law that said, if a

4:33

foreigner enters the country and poses

4:35

a serious threat of spreading a

4:37

communicable disease, we can expel

4:40

them. And he brought this to the White House and he

4:42

said, hey, I think this is a

4:44

way for us to turn asylum

4:46

seekers away and sort of stop

4:49

what's going on at the border.

4:50

At first, Miller's pitch didn't

4:53

get much traction. Infectious diseases

4:55

like the flu weren't a big enough worry

4:58

to turn away people seeking asylum.

5:02

But then the pandemic happened. Trump

5:05

realized he could introduce Title 42

5:08

under the public health emergency as

5:10

a temporary measure. Anyone

5:12

arriving at the southern border asking for

5:14

asylum was turned back. Suddenly,

5:18

asylum seekers, including families with

5:20

young kids, including even unaccompanied

5:22

children, you know, if you had a 12 year

5:25

old that showed up alone at the border, they were

5:27

able to expel you. Often that meant sort

5:29

of deporting the kid alone back to Mexico

5:31

or their home country in the name

5:33

of public health. And it's

5:36

interesting, you know, unlike a lot

5:38

of other Trump era immigration

5:40

policies, I think this made

5:42

a lot of sense to the American

5:44

public. You know, it was hard to argue that

5:46

you actually did need to have some kind of control

5:49

at the border for the pandemic. And

5:51

so it was, you know, more politically popular,

5:53

I would say. But

5:56

the policy was not popular

5:58

among a lot of Democrats.

6:01

And as the 2020 presidential election

6:03

got going, Democrats took

6:06

aim at Trump's hardline immigration

6:08

policies.

6:09

When Biden ran for president, he made

6:11

a pretty strong statement that he wanted

6:13

to restore the nation's asylum system.

6:16

And he talked a lot about specifically reversing

6:19

a lot of Trump's policies. He campaigned

6:21

really hard against the idea of separating families

6:24

at the border. Interestingly, though,

6:26

he actually never said anything about Title 42.

6:29

And our reporting shows that's because his team

6:32

was sort of freaking out about, what do

6:34

you do once you've sort of turned off

6:36

the system, where people are allowed

6:38

to ask for asylum

6:39

and then they come stay? You know, if

6:41

you start saying no to people, what happens

6:43

when you have to go back to saying yes to people?

6:46

So they were sort of freaked out about that prospect

6:48

and didn't exactly know how to handle it.

6:50

And after Biden became president,

6:54

what did his administration do?

6:56

They kept it in place. They basically punted

6:59

the football for two and a half years. They

7:02

about a year ago, actually, the CDC

7:05

said there's no longer any

7:07

public health basis for this. You know,

7:09

the pandemic has really receded. There's

7:11

no basis to believe that migrants are making

7:13

it worse at the border. And so the administration

7:16

attempted to end it. That

7:18

led to about a year of litigation where Republican

7:21

states were suing the administration, saying it

7:23

had to stay in place.

7:24

Title 42 had reduced the number

7:27

of asylum seekers, but the

7:29

number of people arrested for crossing

7:31

into the U.S. illegally actually

7:33

rose to a record high last year.

7:37

So what happened was, you know, in

7:39

the past, if you tried to do that

7:42

and you were caught, there were really

7:44

high consequences for doing that. Not only

7:46

were you deported, but if you tried again, you

7:48

could be facing jail time. And

7:51

what Title 42 did is it essentially, like,

7:53

eliminated all of those consequences.

7:56

Without any consequences, like jail

7:59

sentences. People could try crossing

8:01

the border illegally over and

8:03

over again. But a lot of people sort

8:06

of made it in in that fashion. And

8:08

that's a big reason the Biden administration came around

8:10

to thinking they really needed to end this policy.

8:14

So how did this policy come to an end?

8:17

What actually triggered the end of Title 42

8:20

was a totally separate effort by Republicans

8:23

in Congress who wanted to end

8:25

the COVID-19 public

8:27

health emergency. So the White

8:29

House, you know, a few months ago said, you know what, we're

8:31

going to end the public health emergency ourselves. It

8:33

ends on May 11th. Well, Title 42

8:36

relies very directly on the public health

8:38

emergency to stay in effect. So once one

8:40

ends, the

8:41

other one also has to end. Later

8:44

this week, Title 42 ends and

8:46

what comes next

8:48

is next.

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9:24

Hello? Yes. Hello,

9:27

is that Sister Norma? Yes, it is. Sister

9:30

Norma Pimentel lives in McAllen, Texas

9:33

and works for Catholic charities of the Rio

9:35

Grande Valley. She helps run one

9:37

of the biggest migrant shelters on the southern

9:40

border. It's open up 24 hours

9:42

and so we are always receiving people

9:45

all the time. And basically what

9:47

we do is provide humanity and

9:49

care. Immediately welcome them, recognize

9:52

the fact that they're somebody who

9:55

we care about and we ask

9:58

them if they would like to speak with their families. and

10:00

we make calls so they can contact and let them

10:02

know they're paid. In the meantime,

10:04

they have time to rest, to eat, and maybe get

10:06

some medical attention. That's it.

10:08

My autism are with us 24

10:10

hours maybe. How

10:14

did you get involved with this kind of work? Well,

10:17

I live in the border. I'm from here. I'm a

10:19

native of the Rio Grande Valley. So

10:21

there's the fact that I'm here. I

10:24

am part of what

10:26

happens here. So more specifically,

10:29

by being the fact I'm a religious, and

10:31

I oversee the charitable arm of the Catholic

10:33

Church, I take the lead in many

10:35

of the things that

10:37

happen here. Do

10:38

you remember when Title 42 was first enacted?

10:42

Yes, of course. What happened

10:45

was that immediately, all the people

10:47

that we were receiving on a daily basis,

10:49

just dropped to single digits, maybe 10 or 15

10:52

people. That's it. Our numbers

10:54

were very low.

10:55

Now, Sister Norma says the migrants

10:58

arriving at her shelter have heard that

11:00

US immigration policy is changing,

11:02

and they believe this was their best

11:05

chance to cross the border.

11:07

People are under the impression that Title 42

11:10

is lifted. Everybody's woke up

11:12

and everybody can stay. That's

11:15

a misunderstanding that it's

11:18

not clear, and people come just for that reason.

11:21

What is your shelter like

11:23

now?

11:25

Right now, as we get

11:27

closer to the date that Title 42 will

11:29

be lifted, we're seeing an increase

11:32

of immigrants released to the shelters, and

11:35

there are more apprehensions, and

11:37

so many of them are sent back to their

11:39

country. But those that

11:41

are allowed to remain, we are receiving

11:44

in our shelters, and that number

11:46

has increased daily. It

11:48

increases. We've more than doubled it

11:50

already since a couple of months back

11:52

to this couple of weeks.

11:54

Do you expect the ending

11:56

of Title 42 will change what

11:59

the Rio Grande... Grandy Valley looks like?

12:02

I hope that we can truly

12:06

identify enough locations that

12:08

people can be brought in and not

12:10

be exposed to the danger that they could

12:12

be if they were less homeless in the streets.

12:15

You know, I think that that's

12:18

my hope.

12:20

On Thursday, the Biden administration

12:23

will replace Title 42 with

12:25

a new immigration policy regime.

12:28

They've laid out this whole plan that I would describe

12:31

as carrots and sticks. So

12:33

they've created all of these new legal

12:36

paths into the U.S. where

12:38

you can apply to enter the country

12:41

with a sponsor and fly here

12:43

legally and then make your asylum claim. Or

12:46

if you're at the border, you can download this app

12:48

on your phone and you can make an appointment.

12:50

And, you know, there are about a thousand appointments handed

12:53

out a day. And if you get one of those appointments, you can

12:55

come to a legal port of entry, a

12:57

border crossing and make your asylum claim there.

13:00

Recently, Michelle went to the border and

13:02

said many migrants she spoke with found

13:05

these new systems like booking an appointment

13:07

through an app to be unreliable.

13:10

Where the problem is is that there

13:12

aren't so many appointments. You

13:15

inevitably have people who are logging on

13:17

every day, not getting an appointment, and

13:19

people are starting to

13:20

get tired. They're saying, hey, like I bought into

13:22

your system, but it's not working

13:25

and I and I really got to get to the U.S. So

13:27

they end up crossing illegally. And I think we've

13:29

seen more of that also. As

13:32

for those sticks, under Biden's

13:34

policy, if people are caught illegally

13:37

crossing into the U.S. more than once, they

13:39

can be barred from getting a visa for

13:42

five or 10 years

13:44

and they can also face jail time. If

13:46

you still cross into the U.S. illegally

13:49

under this new plan, you would be presumed

13:52

ineligible for asylum and

13:55

you can quickly be deported either back

13:57

to Mexico or your home country. So

13:59

it's kind of.

13:59

actually meant to mimic Title 42

14:02

because the thought is most people

14:04

crossing illegally will not pass that high

14:06

threshold and then they can be quickly deported.

14:11

So in some ways, immigration

14:14

policy will be tightening.

14:16

Yes. You know, for a lot of people, it's

14:19

actually going to get harder.

14:20

Do you think the end of Title 42

14:23

and the implementation

14:25

of these new rules will change the number

14:28

of people crossing the border?

14:30

That's the really big question, Kate, coming.

14:33

I think the administration's theory of the

14:35

case is that if they're able to deport

14:37

enough people quickly enough using

14:40

these new tools that they have, then

14:42

that will really quickly send a message that

14:44

it is not worth it to even try. I

14:47

think the question is, you know, if you

14:49

have 8,000 people crossing

14:51

the border a day or climbs up even further

14:53

to 10 or 11,000, you

14:56

come to a point where there are so many people

14:58

in border patrol custody at one time that,

15:01

you know, they can't deport everyone because there

15:03

just isn't enough manpower. And so

15:05

it depends on sort of what the odds are of you

15:08

being deported versus being released into

15:10

the U.S. And that has a big effect on

15:12

people in Mexico who are deciding whether

15:15

or not to risk it.

15:17

And what about the politics of

15:19

this moment that you have the Biden

15:21

administration basically putting

15:24

in place the policies that

15:27

the Trump administration had? The

15:30

Biden administration has taken a lot of leaves

15:33

out of the Trump administration playbook. It's not exactly

15:35

the same. They are not trying to turn

15:37

away everyone in the same way. They've opened all

15:39

these new pathways for people to

15:42

come legally through these new channels that

15:44

they've created. But a

15:46

lot of Democrats have hit them really hard. I

15:48

mean, it's been one of the biggest points of criticism

15:50

from Democrats and people on the left saying

15:53

Biden is basically like Trump on immigration.

15:57

picture

16:00

for U.S. immigration policy. I

16:03

think we're coming to a moment where we

16:05

are really reckoning

16:07

for the first time with what it means

16:10

to offer people protection,

16:12

what it means to be able to say, we

16:14

can offer protection but we need to be able to

16:16

control who's coming and

16:19

how many a day. We can't take unlimited

16:21

numbers of people.

16:23

I think we're headed to a situation

16:25

where asylum as it existed

16:28

basically since World War II might be coming

16:30

to an end.

16:44

That's all for today, Tuesday, May 9th.

16:48

The journal is a co-production of Gimlet

16:50

and The Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting

16:52

in this episode by Alicia Caldwell.

16:59

Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.