US Politics

Marion McKeone: Breaking point – the US border towns facing a migrant humanitarian disaster

Title 42 was brought in during the Covid pandemic, restricting inward migration on the basis of a possible threat to public health – but following a court case, it expires this week

A woman sits by the river at Ciudad Juarez in Mexico: thousands of migrants from Central America continue to wait to be accepted by American authorities and request political asylum. Picture: Getty

From Washington, DC to the border towns of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, America is bracing itself for a massive surge of asylum seekers and migrants crossing its southern border when Title 42 restrictions end this Wednesday.

Title 42 was imposed by Donald Trump, the former president, in March 2020 at the onset of the Covid pandemic. The regulation, part of a 1944 public health law, allows the federal government to refuse admission to ...