In addition to a slew of new immigration policies recently rolled out by the Biden administration, once Title 42 expires, the US government will return to processing migrants under existing US immigration law, known as Title 8. Under Title 8, migrants can face a fine or penalty before being deported. If caught trying to re-enter the US, they can face criminal charges and be banned from entering the country or seeking asylum for five to 20 years. 

“The Biden administration promised to build a safe, fair and humane immigration system,” says Palomares. “Instead, it has continued or expanded ways to keep people from seeking asylum at the US southern border. For many of the patients we treat along the migration route, returning home is not an option,” says Palomares. 

“Pushing migrants back, detaining them, abandoning them, or purposefully making the process so difficult that they just give up their quest to reach the US is a cruel policy that only endangers people,” she says.