Some representatives from local migrant aid and human rights advocacy groups are expressing disappointment with the Supreme Court’s decision to keep Title 42 in effect while it goes through a legal challenge.
Tuesday’s ruling to preserve pandemic-era limits on asylum has dashed the hopes of many migrants hoping to flee violence and inequality in Latin America and elsewhere to reach the United States. The Trump-era policy was scheduled to expire under a judge’s order on Dec. 21.
“We’re quite disappointed with the decision because Title 42 is a policy that, every day it’s in place, blocks the human right to seek safety,” said Amy Fischer, the Americas advocacy director with Amnesty International, the world’s largest grassroots human rights organization. Fischer is also a core organizer with the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network and Sanctuary DMV.
The groups Fischer works with were planning for the end of Title 42, and were gearing up to expand migrant welcoming efforts, she said.
“We know that communities are ready to welcome [migrants], and it’s a real shame that Title 42 is going to remain in place,” Fischer told WTOP.
The president of Maryland-based Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, was also critical of SCOTUS’s decision, calling it “deeply disappointing” in a tweet.
“Today’s announcement prevents people from exercising their legal right to seek protection in our country,” she tweeted, saying that the country is “at its best when it welcomes people seeking asylum with dignity and compassion.”
SCOTUS’s decision to keep Title 42 in place for now is deeply disappointing. Today’s announcement prevents people from exercising their legal right to seek protection in our country. (1/2) https://t.co/iG08ddtRxG
— Krish O’Mara Vignarajah (@KrishVignarajah) December 27, 2022
Fischer called the Title 42 policy deadly, adding that it is not about public health.
“Title 42 was always based upon these racist, xenophobic tropes, that migrants are people that carry diseases,” Fischer said. “This policy has … a particularly harsh impact on Black and Indigenous communities that are attempting to exercise their human rights to seek safety. We are ready to welcome people when Title 42 is over once and for all.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
