Calls grow for migrant virus controls to stay

With more than 220,000 migrants having made their way to the US' southwestern border in March alone, political pressure is mounting on US President Joe Biden to reverse plans to remove pandemic-related restrictions that limit entry to the country.

The Biden administration has said that on May 23 it will lift Title 42, a World War II-era authority that has been used during the COVID-19 pandemic to turn migrants away for public safety reasons.

US Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, said in its monthly operational statistics released on April 15 that 221,303 migrants were encountered at the southwest border last month. In March 2021,173,277 migrants were met; in March 2020, that number was 34,460.

There were a record 1,026,460 encounters in the first six months of the 2022 fiscal year, which began in October. By contrast, in the corresponding period for fiscal 2021, there were 570,826 encounters.

The surge in numbers at the border has raised alarm among Republicans and an increasing number of Democrats and is likely to be a major political issue ahead of the midterm congressional elections in November.

The decision to remove Title 42 was made by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Title 42 was dusted off in March 2020 under then-president Donald Trump to remove most of the migrants who showed up at the border during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Biden administration confirmed on April 1 that it would be lifting the order late next month. Since the announcement, border officials have been encountering between 7,000 and 8,000 migrants daily on average.

The CBP statement shows that in March, 123,304 migrants were removed－109,549 under Title 42, while 80,127 were released into the US, including 36,777 who were given humanitarian parole, which makes them eligible for work permits.

On April 21, 21 states asked a federal judge in Louisiana to immediately block the administration from halting Title 42. Earlier this month, Arizona, Louisiana and Missouri filed lawsuits against the decision to end Title 42.More than a dozen states, mostly Republican-led, joined the lawsuit.

'Self-inflicted calamity'

"This suit challenges an imminent, man-made, self-inflicted calamity: the abrupt elimination of the only safety valve preventing this administration's disastrous border policies from devolving into an unmitigated catastrophe," the states' complaint said.

The migrants appearing at the border are coming from different regions.

By nationality, Mexicans made up the largest group of those encountered at the border in March, followed by Cubans, according to CBP data. The number of Ukrainians, who are generally being allowed into the country on humanitarian parole, increased to more than 200 in March from five in November. The administration on Monday introduced a streamlined program for Ukrainians seeking humanitarian entry into the US.

In the 2021 fiscal year, migrants came from 106 countries, as far away as Eastern Europe and Africa, according to a CBP statement.

Agencies contributed to this story.