LOCALIZE IT: Asylum-seekers await decision on Title 42

Mexico US Migrant Asylum Ban (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

EDITORS/NEWS DIRECTORS:

Under Trump-era asylum restrictions, migrants have been denied rights to seek asylum under U.S. and international law 2.5 million times since March 2020 on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

But many migrants have escaped the reach of the restrictions, often referred to as Title 42 — generally because they qualify for an exception such as gender identity, sexual orientation or an acute medical condition, or because they are from a county that Mexico will not take back.

Title 42 applies to all nationalities but has fallen disproportionately on people from Mexico and countries it accepts — Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and, more recently, Venezuela. Those nationalities are expected to drive an increase in arrivals when the restrictions end.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection released at least 330,000 migrants at the border into the United States since October 2021 with notices to appear in immigration court at their final destinations. Additionally, it has released more than 450,000 migrants on parole since that time, typically giving them two months to report to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It takes authorities much less time to parole a migrant than prepare a court case, resulting in widespread use of the practice by overwhelmed Border Patrol agents.

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WHERE MIGRANTS GO

While migrants are released in border towns like San Diego; Yuma, Arizona; and El Paso, Eagle Pass and McAllen in Texas, they rarely spend more than a few nights there and are usually gone within hours after the Border Patrol turns them over to nongovernment groups for travel assistance. In Yuma, the Regional Center for Border Health has been providing six buses daily to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. At Mission: Border Hope, a charity that aligns itself with the United Methodist Church, buses run constantly between Eagle Pass and the San Antonio International Airport.

Detailed breakdowns of where migrants go in the United States are not readily available, but they generally seek to join family and friends already settled in immigrant-heavy cities and states. An analysis of migrant releases in San Diego in 2019 showed Houston and Los Angeles were the top two destinations but included some surprises. Dumas, a town of 15,000 people in the Texas Panhandle that has a large meatpacking plant, ranked high, as did Huntsville and Gadsden in Alabama and Chattanooga, Tennessee.

QUESTIONS FOR IMMIGRATION ATTORNEYS

— Contact local immigration attorneys and ask how many migrants released at the border are arriving in your area and where they're from. Ask to speak to their clients. Why did they come to the United States? If you don’t know any immigration attorneys, contact the American Immigration Lawyers Association for recommendations or check if a nearby university has an immigration law clinic that can help.

QUESTIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS

— Have states, counties and cities witnessed an increase in migrant arrivals from the border and, if so, since when? How have migrants fared in terms of housing, food, education and health care? Has it affected government budgets or strained nongovernment organizations that assist homeless and others?

— Are more migrants expected and what, if anything, is being done to prepare?

QUESTIONS ABOUT PUBLIC OPINION

— To what extent has Title 42 and asylum generally resonated? Are prominent civic and faith leaders speaking out on the issue? Why or why not?

QUESTIONS FOR FEDERAL OFFICIALS

— If your area has an ICE office, how is it being affected by migrants on parole? Are there lines outside of people checking in?

— If your area has an immigration court, are there cases involving migrants who recently crossed the border? Can you describe them?

RESOURCES

— List of immigration courts from the Executive Office for Immigration Review: https://www.justice.gov/eoir/immigration-court-administrative-control-lis

— ICE field offices, searchable by state: https://www.ice.gov/contact/field-offices

PUBLISHABLE CONTEXT

Title 42 restrictions were put in place under then-President Donald Trump in March 2020 and have prevented hundreds of thousands of migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. in recent years. But as they’re set to expire, thousands more migrants have packed into shelters on Mexico’s border with the U.S.

Conservative-leaning states have argued that lifting Title 42 will lead to a surge of migrants into their states and take a toll on government services like health care or law enforcement. They also charge that the federal government has no plan to deal with an increase in migrants.

Immigration advocates have said that the use of Title 42 goes against American and international obligations to people fleeing to the U.S. to escape persecution. And they’ve argued that things like vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus have made the policy outdated. They sued to end the use of Title 42; a federal judge in November sided with them and set the December 21 deadline.

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Localize It is an occasional feature produced by The Associated Press for its customers’ use. Questions can be directed to Katie Oyan at koyan@ap.org.