DENVER, Colorado — Enacted during the pandemic, Title 42 is set to expire in about two weeks, leaving many questioning if the U.S.-Mexico border will be overwhelmed with people trying to enter.
Some immigration experts believe it will lead to an uptick at the border. This week, President Biden announced new measures that will both make it easier and harder for immigrants to arrive.
Biden announced that he'll create processing centers in Central and South America, where migrants can apply for asylum while remaining in their country of origin. It means many people will be able to start the process before taking the difficult journey, oftentimes only to be turned away or make the choice to cross without going through a port of entry.
"That is the bright part of this announcement. The processing centers in the country of origin in Guatemala and Colombia will absolutely help those for family unity. For those folks who have applied with a family member, and they have been bottlenecked, they have been waiting," said Arturo Jiménez, an immigration attorney and professor of Chicano studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Jiménez has worked with several clients who have faced ongoing struggles in their journey to gain status in the U.S.
As part of the new measures, Biden has also said he'll enact a transit ban, meaning that migrants who travel through three countries to get to the U.S. must apply for asylum in one of those countries before applying for asylum in the United States. Former President Donald Trump tried to enact something similar but was met with pushback, so it never went into effect.
"It’s a legal pathway," Jiménez said. "Both President Trump and President Biden are preventing them or availing themselves from a legal pathway and it’s in violation of U.S. law."
Biden also said that migrants who have arrived without going through a port of entry will be ineligible to apply or receive asylum.
"People who are desperate and fleeing very serious violence or drought are coming to the United States anyways," Jiménez said. "So, there is a lot of doubt that this will actually prevent people from coming to the U.S."
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Next with Kyle Clark