Title 42, a little-known section of U.S. health law, has been used to violently expel Haitian immigrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, continuing the history of racism and exclusion in immigration policy that targets Black immigrants.

Since March of 2020, Title 42 has been used to deny refugees and asylum seekers entry to the U.S. under the pretense of public health concerns amidst COVID-19. Although public health experts have continued to insist that public health protocols can be enacted to safely process the entry of refugees and asylum seekers, Title 42 continued to be enforced under the Biden administration with some modifications. This has contributed to the deportations of thousands of Central American, Haitian, and Mexican immigrants who are denied the right to apply for asylum. An analysis by the Associated Press on apprehensions of Haitian migrants at the U.S. border, including Title 42 expulsions, reveals a significant increase in the number of apprehensions between Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 (166) and FY 2020 (4,531). The same analysis showed that between October 2018 and June 2021, among asylum decision data for 84 nationalities, asylum seekers from Haiti had the lowest rate of accepted asylum requests (under 5%). On April 1, 2022 the Biden administration issued a termination to Title 42, yet the decision has been challenged in court. As of May 20^th, termination of the rule has been blocked by a Louisiana federal judge.  

In 2021, the Haitian Bridge Alliance, The Quixote Center, and The UndocuBlack Network published, The Invisible Wall, a report detailing the history of Title 42 and the life-threatening impacts on Haitian immigrants. The report highlights the story of Roseline, a Haitian mother and wife who left Haiti in 2016 after being assaulted due to her political affiliations. During this dangerous journey, she gave birth to her son in Mexico and in February 2021 arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border. Even after this treacherous journey, a few days later, she was expelled under Title 42. While in the U.S., she was detained for 11 days where she was denied the option to speak with an immigration officer, access to counsel, translated documents and information, and access to basic necessities such as a shower or clothes for her baby. Living in Haiti, Roseline and her family are in hiding, unable to leave the house as they fear for their lives. Still, they hope to seek asylum in the U.S. once again after the Title 42 policy is terminated. 

In direct response to this continued violence and discrimination against Black immigrants, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) along with other groups organized a national week of action in early 2022 to continue to demand protections for Black immigrants seeking asylum, which included rescinding Title 42. While Title 42 is only an example of the most recent policy targeting Black immigrants, it is important to note the history of these exclusionary immigration policies. As explained in an article by The Washington Post: in 1970 the U.S. initiated a process by which Haitian asylum seekers were targeted for deportation; the U.S. has denied Haitians the opportunity to enter the U.S. to escape oppressive regimes; and attempted to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti. To read the Haitian Bridge Alliance, The Quixote Center, and The UndocuBlack Network’s full report, click here. Read El Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración (“Institute for Women in Migration”) and BAJI’s report on the anti-Black racism faced by African migrants traveling through Mexico and to the U.S. here. To learn more about the criminalization that Black immigrants experience once in the U.S., read BAJI’s report here and a joint report with the USC Equity Research Institute's on the State of Black Immigrants in California, here.

Photo credit: Defend Black Immigrants, The All-Nite Images, Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)