Texas legislators join national call to halt migrant COVID-related expulsions, but border patrol union says ‘there’s no alternative’

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — Two members of the Texas congressional delegation joined 34 other lawmakers in signing a letter this week to the director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, expressing concern about the country's continued expulsion of migrants who cross the border.

Democrats Joaquin Castro of San Antonio and Sylvia Garcia of Houston joined the chorus of critics questioning the Biden administration's use of the Trump-era Title 42 policy to remove people from the country. They're calling for the policy to be discontinued.

Title 42 is a CDC rule that allows border patrol to remove people because of the pandemic. Former President Donald Trump instituted it shortly after the pandemic began in 2020. Under President Biden, the CDC has kept it in place.

"The letter clearly outlines the dismay and disappointment that many of my colleagues and I share (about) the Trump administration's Title 42 policy that's almost 2 years old still being in place," Garcia told KENS 5 in a Zoom interview. "It's just a bad policy. And we wanted to just get an update from the current administration to find out just what they're doing and what the next steps are and what we could do to make sure that the policy is discontinued."

Many human-rights groups oppose the policy, partly because people who cross into the U.S. are often removed without their asylum claims being heard. But also because those asylum-seekers are often returned to Mexico, where the nonprofit Human Rights First has documented hundreds of instances of kidnappings, assaults and other abuses against migrants.

"The administration has not shown us justification for continuing this policy," Garcia said. "And I think we can find a way to test and vaccinate if we need to, to ensure that there is no public health concern."

In the letter, addressed to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, lawmakers said that "public health experts have repeatedly stated that there is no public health imperative for Title 42 expulsions."

The letter also states the policy "unlawfully restricts the legal and human right to seek asylum," forcing "the expulsion of people fleeing persecution and torture."

Lawmakers are asking CDC officials a number of questions as well, including how the agency determines that asylum-seekers pose a public health threat and "are not amenable to the same mitigation measures as those applied to other visitors/travelers who are allowed to cross the border," the letter said.