The White House is considering ending a border policy signed under Donald Trump that allowed migrant families to be sent back to Mexico after they crossed into the U.S., according to a report on Sunday.
The Biden Administration is considering revoking the policy known as Title 42 by July 31, Axios reported, as a record 170,000 migrants crossed the border last month.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to confirm or decline the report.
'I don't have any new policy to announce so when it comes to title 42,' Psaki said at her press briefing Monday. 'There's been no change.'
The Trump-era policy relied on a 1944 public health statute to close the border to 'nonessential' travel as part of efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
It has resulted in tens of thousands of migrant families being turned away without applying for various protections in the United States, including asylum. But could also have led to the spike in children being held in government custody after being sent to cross the border alone.
In May, two doctors with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the border, argued the use of Title 42 had the 'perverse impact' of encouraging parents to send their children to cross the border alone, since the Biden administration doesn't turn away minors.
Shelters were overwhelmed and many children were held longer than the legal limit as the government struggled to process the influx of minors and find them family or guardians in the United States.
But single adults and many migrants traveling together as a family are immediately turned around under Title 42.
Biden was under heavy pressure to reverse the order from various groups - including Democratic lawmakers; the ACLU, which sued the Trump administration to stop implementation; and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials.
The White House is considering ending a border policy signed under Trump that allowed migrant families to be sent back to Mexico after they got into the U.S. Migrants cross the Rio Grande on a raft over the weekend near Roma, Texas
Thermal imaging cameras show migrants crossing the Rio Grande overnight in Roma, Texas
The Biden Administration is considering revoking the policy known as Title 42 by July 31, despite a record 170,000 migrants crossing the border every month. Migrants are seen helping each other out of the water near Roma Texas
According to Axios, the Biden administration has been in negotiations with the ACLU to withdraw Title 42 themselves. The civil rights group has put its lawsuit on hold as talks continue.
'There's a policy process that's ongoing that's unrelated to the litigation,' Psaki said.
Administration officials have argued that the Department of Justice would be forced to defend the Trump policy if the ACLU went ahead with their lawsuit.
A White House official told Axios it is 'a public health decision that will be made ultimately on those grounds.'
Biden came under fire for implementing the Trump-era policy as COVID cases soared in the United States. He was hit on both sides - those who said he was betraying his promise for a more compassionate immigration policy and those who said, if he didn't impose it, would be soft on border issues.
In the last year, CBP authorities applied Title 42 to more than 80% of encounters with migrants, carrying out 530,000 expulsions, the Los Angeles Times reported in March.
The Biden administration has been in negotiations with the ACLU over the plans, while they have put a lawsuit condemning the practice of expelling families on hold
Two weeks ago, Customs and Border Protection released figures that show illegal crossings have exploded by 674 per cent in a year.
Border guards confronted 180,034 migrants in May - the fourth consecutive monthly rise.
The figures show the number of migrants rocketed by more than six-fold from the 23,237 who crossed from Mexico into the United States in May 2020.
Last year's number was far lower than usual because of the COVID-19 outbreak, but this year's figures still spell worrying news for Biden, with 2021 on-track to record the highest number of illegal border crossings since 2006.
Single adults still represented the majority of border-crossers, data from the U.S. Border Patrol showed.
In May there was a decrease in the number of unaccompanied minors, from roughly 16,910 to 13,906, Border Patrol found.
CBP also said that a majority of those who crossed the border were already expelled due to Title 42, which allows the U.S. government to quickly remove people using the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of the 180,034 crossers, 112,302 had already been expelled.
CBP also pointed out, according to Fox News, that Title 42 is leading people to try to cross the border more than once, which could also factor into the high numbers.
Axios reported last week that preliminary CBP data from the fiscal year 2021 showed that illegal crossings have been the most since 2006 - with four months still to go.
In this image made with a thermal camera, a Border Patrol agent leads up group of immigrants from the bank of the Rio Grande at night over the weekend in Roma, Texas
Immigrants seeking asylum wait to be accounted for and taken to a border patrol processing facility after crossing the Rio Grande near Roma, Texas, on Saturday night
This chart shows how 2021 border crossings - pictured in blue - rocketed on crossings made in 2020, represented by the brown line (2018 is pictured in gray, with 2019 in orange)
This graph shows the number of migrants caught by the Office of Field Operation (OFO) and US Border Patrol agents in April and May
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