What will the end of Title 42 mean for migrants at the U.S. border?

WAMU 88.5 | By Maya Garg

Published May 11, 2023 at 9:33 AM EDT

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A member of the Texas Army National Guard watches as US Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol agents search migrants surrendering themselves for the processing of immigration and asylum claims on the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas.

May 11 marks the end of a controversial border policy that had been in place since March 2020—Title 42.

The pandemic imposed restriction allowed U.S. officials to quickly return migrants over the border. The U.S. is now putting into place a set of new policies that will clamp down on illegal crossings while offering migrants a legal path to the United States.

Officialshad predicted that lifting Title 42 would spur a significant increase in the number of migrants trying to cross into the U.S., especially at the southern border.

We’ll discuss what the end of this policy means formigration at the southern border, and ask if the United States is prepared forwhat’scoming up.