Earlier this month, as the Biden administration announced the end of the COVID-19 national emergency, the United States also saw the end of a controversial Trump-era public health regulation, known as Title 42. It allowed the US government to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border to seek asylum, on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Refugee and migrant rights advocates were hopeful that the expiration of Title 42 would clear the way for a more humane policy. But then the Biden administration swiftly applied tough new immigration rules to discourage people from entering the US.

Human rights groups have called the measures an outright “asylum ban”, while some Democratic Party representatives deem it a “repackaged Trump-era policy [that] will put countless lives at risk.”

In this episode of The Stream, we’ll examine what lies ahead for vulnerable people at the US-Mexico border.

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