Title 42 was the perfect excuse devised by the United States government to expel from its territory the thousands of migrants who continued to arrive in that country during the three years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to data from the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), during fiscal years 2020 to 2023 there were a total of 2,9 million expulsions, up to April 30.
The scandalous figure places the North American country at the head of the nations that have carried out the most forced return migrations in recent years, surpassing all the countries of the European Union and those rejected by the governments of Peru and Chile.
Jorge Gallo, regional communications officer of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for Central America, North America and the Caribbean, clarifies that, as a consequence of the high rate of re-migration, the exact number of people who were expelled is not known. from USA
"Due to multiple attempts to enter the US - since removals under Title 42 carried no legal consequences for the person who had been intercepted - the figure of 2,9 million removals includes multiple removals of the same person" , he told DW.
The vast majority of those deported, some 1,7 million, were Mexican nationals. CBP also returned some 367.000 people from Honduras, 402.000 from Guatemala, 139.000 from El Salvador, and 11.000 from Nicaragua.
with uncertain fate
The vast majority of expulsions under Title 42 were by land to Mexico, says Jorge Gallo. Currently, the Mexican authorities agree to receive people from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua.
Some expellees were transported by air, as was the case with some 20 Haitians. There was also an increase in flights to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, as well as, to a lesser extent, to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Brazil.
The lack of diplomatic relations between Washington and the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua made it difficult for migrants to return to those countries.
Between 2020 and 2022, the Mexican authorities deported, in turn, about 297.000 people to their country of origin, the vast majority, to the Northern Triangle of Central America.
