Key facts about Title 42, the pandemic policy that has reshaped immigration enforcement at U.S.-Mexico border

The Biden administration is seeking to end the use of Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that has led the Border Patrol to turn away hundreds of thousands of migrants attempting to enter the United States at the U.S.-Mexico border over the past two years. The administration’s move to end the Title 42 policy has been cheered in some corners and criticized in others, and opponents of the decision are challenging it in court and in Congress.

As the debate over the use of Title 42 unfolds, here are answers to key questions about the policy, based primarily on information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the agency that oversees the Border Patrol.

What is Title 42?

Title 42 refers to a rarely used section of the U.S. Code that dates to 1944. The law empowers federal health authorities to prohibit migrants from entering the country if it is determined that doing so could prevent the spread of contagious diseases.

The CDC invoked Title 42 at the beginning of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak in March 2020, giving Border Patrol agents the authority to swiftly expel migrants trying to enter the U.S. instead of allowing them to seek asylum within the country, as had long been the policy before the pandemic. Migrants expelled from the U.S. under Title 42 are returned to their home country or most recent transit country.