Pandemic-related restrictions known as Title 42 expire, straining US immigration system
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Transcript
00:00 As the clock strikes midnight and the pandemic-era asylum restrictions lift, putting an end to
00:05 Title 42, another tough immigration policy comes into force.
00:10 To migrants attempting to illegally cross the Rio Grande River at the US-Mexico border,
00:15 Washington has this warning.
00:17 "Starting at midnight, people who arrive at our southern border will be subject to
00:21 our immigration enforcement authorities under Title 8 of the United States Code.
00:27 Here is what that means.
00:29 If anyone arrives at our southern border after midnight tonight, they will be presumed ineligible
00:35 for asylum and subject to steeper consequences for unlawful entry, including a minimum five-year
00:42 ban on reentry and potential criminal prosecution."
00:46 Under Title 8, asylum seekers and other migrants are to request entry from outside the US and
00:51 must schedule an interview via a mobile app that has proven notoriously difficult to access.
00:58 The US has pledged to set up processing centres in other countries and is creating special
01:02 refugee programs for some places like Haiti, as well as expanding temporary work permits.
01:08 However, Republicans are blasting the Biden administration for so-called lax border security.
01:14 They voted on Thursday to pass their own bill, H.R. 2, which seeks to codify some of the
01:18 Trump-era border actions.
01:20 "This bill secures the border from President Biden's record crossings, record carelessness
01:27 and record chaos.
01:29 The White House has two years to plan for the end of Title 42.
01:35 We all knew the deadline, but the White House produced no plan, missed the deadline and
01:42 bumbled into another crisis."
01:44 Among other things, H.R. 2, also known as Secure the Border Act of 2023, aims to continue
01:50 the construction of a border wall, increase the number of Border Patrol agents by around
01:54 22,000, require more minors who cross the border without their parents to be deported
01:59 and allow migrant families to be held in detention centres for longer periods of time.
02:04 However, it is believed to be unlikely to pass in the Democrat-led Senate and President
02:08 Biden has already said he would veto the bill should it land on his desk.