Reports indicate the Trump administration plans to resume expulsions under the Centers for Disease Control’s Title 42 authority. The measure, first used by the Trump administration to combat COVID-19, allowed immigration officials to summarily expel migrants within minutes of an illegal entry to reduce the spread of the contagion.
According to a CBS News report, internal government documents were reviewed that indicate the Trump administration is planning on reinstating the Public Health Service Act found in Title 42 to reduce the likelihood of introducing diseases like tuberculosis. The measure allows Border Patrol agents and other immigration officials to swiftly remove migrants who enter the United States illegally without allowing them to apply for asylum.
According to a source within Customs and Border Protection, field offices are aware of several measures being explored to increase the removal options available to reduce illegal entries between ports of entry further. “We have heard rumblings from the field level that we are going to see a return to Title 42 expulsions. It makes sense to have that in our toolbox of removal options, but the plan has not been widely disseminated,” a U.S. Customs and Border Protection source told Breitbart Texas.
The source says the plan may focus on current outbreaks of measles and varicella (chickenpox) on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border. In Piedras Negras, Coahuila, the border city across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas, a Spanish-language news report described a Varicella outbreak discovered within four public schools in the border city. At least 60 young children tested positive for the contagion, also known as chickenpox.
On Friday, the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) notified residents of at least 90 measles cases identified in the South Plains near Seminole, Texas. As of Friday, authorities in New Mexico had identified at least nine cases that they believe are not connected to the Texas outbreak. Only two Texas cases in late January were identified as having a nexus to international travel.
Authorities describe the Texas outbreak as the worst measles outbreak in thirty years. According to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services (TDSHS), many of those impacted by the measles outbreak in West Texas are under-vaccinated members of a Mennonite community in Gaines County. The Mennonites are a religious minority that moved from Canada to Mexico in the 1920s and later into the West Texas region.
According to a Concho Valley News report, sixteen patients in Texas have been hospitalized. Five of the cases are reported to have been vaccinated against the disease. The remainder of the cases were unvaccinated or had a vaccination status listed as unknown.
A return to the Title 42 policy, first initiated by the Trump administration in March 2020, would likely see border incursion numbers drop from an already low rate of less than 300 illegal migrant crossings per day along the entire southwest border with Mexico. The rate of illegal crossings dropped precipitously soon after President Trump was inaugurated.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.