Title 42

The U.S. Code (the collection of statutes passed by Congress) is divided into more than 50 subjects, called “Titles”; Title 42 contains the public health statutes, including a previously obscure provision (Section 265) authorizing the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to prohibit “the introduction” into the United States of “persons and property” if doing so is “necessary” to avert “serious danger” of “introduc[ing]” a “communicable disease” into the United States.  In March 2020, and ostensibly to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Trump CDC issued an order under this provision prohibiting the “introduction” of certain individuals into the United States from Mexico or Canada–in particular, those who would normally be detained by DHS after arriving at the border, such as asylum seekers.  On the same day, DHS began “expelling” such individuals arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border back to Mexico, without giving them the opportunity to apply for asylum or other forms of humanitarian protection–notwithstanding that Title 8 of  U.S. Code (the immigration law) protects the right to apply for asylum.  
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