In 2020, Trump used the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to invoke Title 42 – an existing public health law – to severely restrict migrants’ entry into the United States.
This means that Title 42 was legislation created in the past, but what exactly does it do or why was it created? Title 42 is part of a public health emergency law enacted in 1944 called the Public Health Service Act.
The law was enacted to prevent the spread of communicable diseases and allows health authorities to deny individuals entrance into the United States in order to prevent the introduction, transmission, and spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the United States.
On March 20, 2020, the Trump Administration used Title 42 to close the land borders with Canada and Mexico, restricting the entry of many immigrants fleeing their countries due to persecution.