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The Trump administration is expected to restore the pandemic-era Title 42 policy to block illegal immigrants at the southern border based on health concerns, according to a new report.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is preparing for the order, CBS News first revealed on Sunday.
“Just from the objective standpoint of TB and the risk of TB being transported across the border, TB incidence rates are high in the countries where immigrants are coming from, but they’re not exceedingly high relative to other countries,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who was commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration during Mr. Trump’s first term, told “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
“I think, just purely from an objective public health standpoint, there’s probably parts of the world where we have immigrants coming in that provide a larger risk of the transmission of TB than across the border,” he added.
Axios noted the Trump administration’s plans ahead of his return to the White House to restore the Title 42 policy within his first 100 days in office.
“The pandemic-era public health policy cites concerns about spreading illness to allow for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border — preventing them from even a shot at asylum,” the outlet reported in January.
“There were millions of Title 42 expulsions from early in the COVID pandemic until President Biden ended the policy in 2023,” it added.
Breitbart News noted that the Title 42 legal barrier “would make the existing but incomplete border wall far more effective by allowing the border patrol to send all caught migrants back into Mexico.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also said Monday that arrests of illegal immigrants at the southern border fell to the lowest in 15 years last weekend. Noem shared the update in a post to X on Saturday, noting that “just 200 aliens” were encountered.
“On Saturday, CBP encountered just 200 aliens at the US Southern Border. That’s the lowest single apprehension day in over 15 years. Thank you to President @realDonaldTrump and our brave men & women of @CBP,” she wrote.
The news follows comments last week from White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller who celebrated a 95 percent reduction in illegal immigrants at the southern border on Thursday.