WASHINGTON - The U.S. is putting new restrictions into place at its southern border to try to stop migrants from crossing illegally and encourage them instead to apply for asylum online through a new process.The changes come with the end of coronavirus restrictions on asylum that have allowed the U.S.
to quickly turn back migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border for the past three years. Those restrictions are known as Title 42, because the authority comes from Title 42 of a 1944 public health law allowing curbs on migration in the name of protecting public health.Migrants entering the USA wait in a long line at the border with Mexico, in the early morning hours of the last day of Title 42, in Yuma, Arizona, on May 11, 2023. (Photo by Katie McTiernan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Disinformation has swirled and confusion has set in during the transition.
A look at the new rules (and the old ones):Title 42 is the name of an emergency health authority. It was a holdover from President Donald Trump's administration and began in March 2020.
The authority allowed U.S. officials to turn away migrants who came to the U.S.-Mexico border on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.Before that, migrants could cross illegally, ask for asylum and be allowed into the U.S.