{"slug":"title-42-expulsions-2020","title":"Title 42 Expulsions: Public-Health Order Used to Expel Asylum Seekers Without Screening, Over CDC Experts' Objections (March 2020)","date":"2020-03-20","lastUpdated":"2026-10-04","description":"On 20 March 2020 the CDC issued an order under Sections 362 and 365 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 265, 268) suspending the 'introduction' of certain migrants at the borders. Border agents used it to expel people, including asylum seekers and about 13,000 unaccompanied children, without the asylum or torture screening US law and treaties require. Human Rights Watch counted more than 642,700 expulsions by April 2021, and cited one organisation's count of at least 1,544 reports of murder, rape, kidnapping and other attacks on people sent from the US to Mexico during the Trump administration. The CDC's own quarantine chief opposed the order; the agency's second-ranking official later told Congress 'the bulk of the evidence at that time did not support this policy proposal.'","summary":"The administration used a COVID-19 public-health order to close the southern border to asylum seekers, expelling hundreds of thousands of people with no protection screening. Top CDC scientists said there was no public-health basis for it. Human Rights Watch found it violated the US obligation not to return people to persecution or torture.","category":"deportation","severity":"critical","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/03/26/2020-06327/notice-of-order-under-sections-362-and-365-of-the-public-health-service-act-suspending-introduction","title":"Notice of Order Under Sections 362 and 365 of the Public Health Service Act Suspending Introduction of Certain Persons From Countries Where a Communicable Disease Exists","publisher":"Federal Register (CDC)"},{"url":"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/10/16/2020-22978/order-suspending-the-right-to-introduce-certain-persons-from-countries-where-a-quarantinable","title":"Order Suspending the Right To Introduce Certain Persons From Countries Where a Quarantinable Communicable Disease Exists","publisher":"Federal Register (CDC)"},{"url":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/04/08/qa-us-title-42-policy-expel-migrants-border","title":"Q&A: US Title 42 Policy to Expel Migrants at the Border","publisher":"Human Rights Watch"},{"url":"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-official-told-congress-migrant-expulsion-policy-not-needed-to-contain-covid/","title":"Top CDC official told Congress migrant expulsion policy was not needed to contain COVID","publisher":"CBS News"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["Title 42","asylum","expulsions","non-refoulement","COVID-19","CDC","unaccompanied children","Stephen Miller"],"relatedEntries":["migrant-protection-protocols-remain-in-mexico-2019","asylum-ban-executive-order","trump-cdc-fda-political-interference-covid","cbp-one-shutdown-asylum-elimination"],"timeline":[{"date":"2020-03-20","title":"CDC issues Title 42 order","summary":"The CDC issues an order suspending the introduction of certain persons from countries where a communicable disease exists, effective immediately. Border agents begin expelling migrants without asylum screening (Federal Register; HRW)."},{"date":"2020-03-26","title":"Order published in the Federal Register","summary":"The CDC's notice of the order is published (Federal Register document 2020-06327)."},{"date":"2020-10-13","title":"CDC reissues the order","summary":"A revised CDC order takes effect, suspending the introduction of migrants entering through Canada and Mexico 'regardless of their country of origin'; it is published on 16 October (Federal Register document 2020-22978)."},{"date":"2021-04-08","title":"HRW: more than 642,700 expulsions","summary":"Human Rights Watch publishes its analysis, calling the policy 'illegal' and setting out the non-refoulement obligations it bypasses under the Convention against Torture, the ICCPR and the 1967 Refugee Protocol."},{"date":"2021-11-12","title":"CDC official tells Congress the policy was not needed","summary":"CBS News reports congressional testimony by former CDC principal deputy director Anne Schuchat that the evidence did not support the policy and that the CDC's quarantine chief opposed it (CBS News)."}],"location":{"name":"US–Mexico border","lat":31.76,"lng":-106.49},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"executive-action","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees","article":"Article I (incorporating Refugee Convention Article 33)","provision":"Non-refoulement: no return of a refugee to a territory where life or freedom would be threatened (US is a party)"},{"statute":"Convention against Torture","article":"Article 3","provision":"No return of a person to a state where there are substantial grounds for believing they would be in danger of torture (US is a party)"},{"statute":"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights","article":"Articles 6, 7 and 13","provision":"Right to life; prohibition of torture and cruel treatment (including non-refoulement); procedural protections against expulsion (US is a party)"}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"Hundreds of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers expelled without protection screening; HRW counted more than 642,700 expulsions from March 2020 to April 2021, including about 13,000 unaccompanied children before November 2020. HRW cited one organisation's count of at least 1,544 reports of murder, rape, kidnapping and other attacks on people sent to Mexico during the Trump administration, under this and other policies.","perpetrators":"President Donald Trump's administration; Vice President Mike Pence, who according to HRW pressured the CDC director to issue the order; White House adviser Stephen Miller, who according to HRW proposed the policy; CDC Director Robert Redfield, whose agency issued it (the order was issued by the CDC Director, per the Federal Register); DHS and US Customs and Border Protection, which carried out the expulsions.","structuredVictims":[{"group":"Asylum seekers and migrants expelled at the US–Mexico border","status":"expelled without asylum or torture screening; more than 642,700 expulsions March 2020–April 2021 (HRW), including about 13,000 unaccompanied children"}],"structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Mike Pence","role":"Vice President; pressured the CDC to issue the order, according to HRW","institution":"White House"},{"name":"Stephen Miller","role":"White House adviser; proposed using public-health authority to close the border, according to HRW","institution":"White House"},{"name":"Robert Redfield","role":"CDC Director; issued the order over the objections of agency experts","institution":"Centers for Disease Control and Prevention"},{"name":"US Customs and Border Protection","role":"Carried out the expulsions","institution":"Department of Homeland Security"}],"keyPoints":["The CDC order was issued on 20 March 2020 under Sections 362 and 365 of the Public Health Service Act and took effect the same day (Federal Register, 26 March 2020).","Border agents used it to expel migrants, including asylum seekers, without screening them for asylum or for risk of torture (HRW).","Human Rights Watch counted more than 642,700 expulsions from March 2020 to its April 2021 report, a period that includes about the first 11 weeks of the Biden administration, which continued the policy.","About 13,000 unaccompanied children were expelled before a federal court blocked the policy's application to them in November 2020 (HRW).","HRW reported that 'top CDC doctors refused to issue the order, saying there was no public health basis for it', that Vice President Mike Pence pressured CDC Director Robert Redfield to issue it, and that one health official told the AP: 'It is either do it or get fired.' HRW says Stephen Miller first proposed using public-health powers to close the border (HRW).","Anne Schuchat, then the CDC's second-highest official, told congressional investigators that 'the bulk of the evidence at that time did not support this policy proposal', and that Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, opposed it because 'the facts on the ground didn't call for this from a public health reason' (CBS News).","HRW reported that one organisation had counted at least 1,544 reports of murder, torture, rape, kidnapping and other violent attacks against asylum seekers and migrants sent to Mexico during the Trump administration. The figure is not limited to Title 42: it covers people sent to Mexico under any policy, including Remain in Mexico."],"searchAliases":["Title 42","Section 265","CDC border order","COVID expulsions"],"legalBasis":"Refugee Protocol (Refugee Convention Art. 33 non-refoulement); Convention against Torture Art. 3; ICCPR Arts. 6, 7 and 13; statutory asylum and withholding protections (8 U.S.C. §§ 1158, 1231(b)(3)) that the expulsions bypassed","postureNote":"The order and its effective date are on the official record (Federal Register). The pretext, that CDC experts opposed the order on public-health grounds and it was issued under political pressure, rests on congressional testimony reported by CBS News and on AP reporting summarised by HRW. The non-refoulement analysis is HRW's. The policy continued under the Biden administration, and HRW's expulsion count spans both administrations; this entry concerns its creation and use under Trump. No international crime is shown: Article 7 deportation would require the expulsions to be part of an attack on a civilian population, which no credible authority has found.","relatedIncidents":["migrant-protection-protocols-remain-in-mexico-2019","asylum-ban-executive-order","trump-cdc-fda-political-interference-covid","cbp-one-shutdown-asylum-elimination"]}}