Trump invokes COVID authority to expel migrants without asylum hearings

The Trump administration directed the CDC to invoke Title 42 of the Public Health Services Act, authorizing Border Patrol to rapidly expel migrants — including asylum seekers — at land borders without processing immigration claims, citing COVID-19 as a public health emergency. The policy bypassed asylum law protections that had governed border processing since the 1980 Refugee Act. Border Patrol conducted nearly 400,000 expulsions under Title 42 before the end of Trump term.