CW: This article and audio clip mention sexual violence among other forms of abuse. 

On Friday, March 25, 2022, Young Center Executive Director Gladis Molina Alt joined a press call organized by the Immigration Hub to advocate for an immediate end to Title 42, a public health law misused by two administrations to turn away more than 1.7 million asylum-seekers at our borders. Also speaking on the panel were Representative Ayanna Pressley and Representative Joaquin Castro as well as leaders from Immigration Hub, Physicians for Human Rights, and the Center for Law and Social Policy. Recounting what she heard from asylum-seeking families during a visit in November 2021 to Reynosa, Mexico, Molina Alt said, “I heard many parents who were concerned for their children being sexually assaulted or kidnapped. I spoke to a mother who told me how she stayed up every night to watch over her teenage daughter, how she would get her sleep during the day if she had a chance. Being exposed out in an open camp with fears of being dragged out at night, Reynosa is simply a terrifying place for Central American, Haitians, and asylum-seekers from other places in the world. There’s no recourse for justice for migrants in Mexico and there’s simply a sense of U.S. asylum law being suspended with no accountability from the government towards those impacted by this suspension. Time and time again, as I stood there in the middle of migrants in the camp, I was asked about when Title 42 would end.” 

Because of Title 42 and the threats facing asylum-seekers in encampments, many families are forced into the horrific choice of sending their children to the border alone to seek protection as unaccompanied children, or facing the threats of rape, violence, and kidnapping together. As a result, hundreds of children have been forced into separation from their families. The Young Center has served as independent Child Advocate for many of these children escaping violence and traumatized by the U.S. government’s policy of rejecting their parents and families at our borders. 

“Family unity is not a human right that should depend on where you were born,” Molina Alt added. “Children are children and belong with their families.” 

Even as the Biden administration tries to reunite families ripped apart under the Zero Tolerance policy during the Trump administration, Title 42 is separating thousands of new families. It is also endangering the lives of asylum-seekers from around the world. Human Rights First has tracked 9,886 reports of kidnapping, rape, torture and other attacks against asylum seekers and migrants turned away to danger in Mexico due to Title 42. Despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis and political instability in Haiti, the Biden administration has expelled more than 20,000 Haitians, the majority of them under Title 42.  

“The hurt and harm posed by this policy is egregious and it has a disparate impact on Black, Brown, and Indigenous asylum-seekers,” said Representative Pressley. Comparing the Biden administration’s response to rightfully extend protections to those escaping war in Ukraine in a matter of days to the treatment of asylum-seekers from Haiti and other Black and Brown nations facing conflict, Representative Pressley highlighted the “arbitrary” nature of this policy. “All asylum-seekers deserve this type of swift, compassionate, humane response…We need an equitable outrage here, and an equitably humane response for all refugees.” 

Echoing Representative Pressley’s concern for the disproportionate expulsion of asylum-seekers of color, Representative Castro said: “We can’t be a nation where our compassion for refugees depends on the color of their skin. Title 42 must end for everyone.” 

Since March 2020, when Title 42 was first used to turn away those seeking protection at our borders, including unaccompanied children, public health experts have time and again highlighted the lack of a public rational for the policy. Even as the U.S. government turns away asylum-seekers, tourists and business travelers are able to safely enter the country. Asylum-seekers pose no specific or heightened threats to the public health of Americans. Rather, their lives, health, and well-being are in constant danger due to Title 42.  

Speaking at the press call, Dr. Adam Richards, Associate Professor of Global Health and Medicine at The George Washington University, a member of Physicians for Human Rights' Board of Directors, and a member of the PHR Asylum Network emphasized: “There is no public health justification for Title 42. The message is simple and it’s the same message that we, public health professionals, have been repeating for two years. But it bears repeating because the administration has yet to align its policy with the scientific fact that there’s no public health justification for Title 42.” 

By April 1, the Biden administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will announce whether Title 42 will be extended for another 60 days. It’s past time to end this dangerous policy and uphold U.S. laws and humanitarian obligations.  

Take action now: 

Join us in calling for an immediate end to Title 42 by retweeting this Young Center Tweet.