World Relief Applauds Announcement by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) To End Title 42, Calls For Functional and Orderly Asylum System Process

April 4, 2022

CONTACT:
Audrey Garden
audrey.garden@pinkston.co
571-405-1606

BALTIMORE – On Friday, the CDC announced that on May 23, it will end Title 42, a policy implemented in March 2020 that allows officials to turn away migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border even if they are seeking asylum. World Relief applauds the ending of Title 42 as it will be an important step forward to establishing a functional, orderly and efficient asylum process so those fleeing conflict and violence can find safety in the United States.

“Title 42 is a pandemic-era public health policy first applied by the Trump administration and continued by the Biden administration. It has meant that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has expelled asylum seekers without a hearing. Ostensibly, the policy has been designed to protect public health; in reality, it has long been clear that the policy was being used to simply ignore our country’s asylum laws,” said Matthew Soerens, World Relief U.S. director of church mobilization and advocacy. “We should never use public health as a pretense to deprive asylum seekers of their legal right to due process. Asylum seekers, by definition, profess to fear persecution if returned to their country of origin, and it’s vital that the U.S. government respect our nation’s laws designed to protect human life by ensuring no one is returned without a fair process to determine if they qualify to stay lawfully in the U.S.” 

World Relief believes the United States can balance its responsibility to provide border security and due process for vulnerable people seeking asylum and protection. Therefore, U.S. officials need to uphold their legal and moral commitment not to return people to danger.

“While not everyone who shows up at the U.S. border is fleeing a credible threat of violence, persecution or conflict, and not every asylum seeker qualifies under U.S. law to be granted asylum, we must honor our nation’s moral and legal commitments to those fleeing persecution by providing them with their legal right to have their asylum claims heard,” said Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief.

To learn more about how you can advocate, visit https://worldrelief.org.

To download a PDF version of this press release, click here.

About World Relief

World Relief is a global Christian humanitarian organization that brings sustainable solutions to the world’s greatest problems – disasters, extreme poverty, violence, oppression, and mass displacement. For over 75 years, we’ve partnered with churches and community leaders in the U.S. and abroad to bring hope, healing and transformation to the most vulnerable.

Learn more at worldrelief.org.