COVID REDUX?

Trump Team Searching for Disease to Justify Border Shutdown

The president-elect’s advisors are reportedly seeking to reimplement Title 42—which was used to shut down the border during the COVID-19 pandemic.

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is reportedly planning to reimplement Title 42, a border restriction used to block migrants from entering the United States due to public health concerns—but are still searching for the right disease to justify the policy. The first Trump administration first invoked Title 42 in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic surged. President Joe Biden initially kept the policy in place for years, but later ended the restriction in May 2023. The incoming administration has been searching for a disease to justify reimplementing Title 42, The New York Times reported, and has already considered using tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases. They also reportedly asked Border Patrol officials to identify diseases currently being detected at the border. Trump’s reintroduction of Title 42 is expected to be a major component of his sweeping plans to shut down the border, multiple sources told Axios, which he previewed alongside his longtime ally and immigration policy advisor Stephen Miller in a meeting with Senate Republicans on Wednesday. The Trump transition team did not immediately return a request for comment.