Joint Catholic Letter on Title 42 in Honor of World Migrant and Refugee Day

The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns signed the following letter to President Biden by Catholic organizations urging him to rescind the use of the Title 42 health policy to rapidly expel migrants in honor of the 107th World Day of Migrants and Refugees on Sept. 26. 

September 23, 2021

Dear President Biden:

Ahead of the 107th World Day for Migrants and Refugees on September 26, 2021, we the undersigned
164 Catholic organizations reach out in shared faith to urge you to end the use of Title 42 immediately.
Pope Francis offers us two paths for the future in his recent encyclical Fratelli Tutti, writing: “Once this
health crisis passes … God willing … we will think no longer in terms of ‘them’ and ‘those,’ but only
‘us.’” The continuation of the Trump-era change to Title 42 is taking our country down the wrong path.

The Misuse of Title 42 is Anti-Science and Perpetuates Anti-Immigrant Tropes

Under your leadership, the CDC recently issued a new order continuing Title 42 expulsions indefinitely,
despite epidemiologists’ and public health experts’ repeated statements that this use of Title 42 lacks
public health justification and actually threatens public health. This is a gross violation of the human
dignity of migrants and refugees at the southern border, who are our siblings in Christ. We unequivocally
condemn the false, hateful, dehumanizing narrative underlying the misuse of Title 42, connecting
immigrants with disease. Furthermore, even if a true public health risk existed, which again, science and
experts in your administration adamantly reject, the policy solution would be to provide vaccines and
meet healthcare needs, not send asylum seekers back to situations where their lives and freedom are at
risk. Faith and community based organizations at the border are ready to assist in providing testing,
vaccines and healthcare but are currently being prevented from doing so.

The Misuse of Title 42 Violates International Human Law and Undermines U.S. Credibility
on the World Stage

Since the Trump administration first began misusing Title 42 in March 2020, U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) officers have rapidly turned away nearly all arrivals at the southern border. As a result,
the vast majority of asylum seekers are denied the opportunity to state a credible fear of returning to their
home countries and begin the process of applying for asylum. This is in contravention to international
law, and the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees has called on the United States to end the
policy and come “in line with international legal and human rights obligations.” Over the past six months,
human rights researchers and journalists have identified over 6,356 kidnappings, torture, rape, and other
attacks suffered by people expelled or blocked at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Title 42 order.

We Cannot “Restore the Soul of the Nation” with the Continued Misuse of Title 42

Your call and promise during your campaign to “restore the soul of the nation” spoke to a return to
morality in furtherance of just and humane law and policy. As Catholics, we know that “God created us in
his image, in the image of his own triune being, a communion in diversity.” Because of this, “every
human being has the right to live with dignity and to develop integrally; this fundamental right cannot be
denied by any country” (Fratelli Tutti, no. 107). The continued misuse of Title 42 fails to respect the
dignity of migrants and refugees and honor God’s image in every human person. In addition to the
catastrophic impact this policy has on individuals and families, it sends a message that perpetrates fear of
the “other,” and discourages decision makers at every level of government in our country from legislating
and crafting policy with human dignity at the heart.

Recent statements from your administration undercut the right to asylum and reinforce anti-asylum
narratives. This includes those that attempt to justify treating asylum seekers and migrants as threats to
public health and tout efforts to provide protection for people “closer to their homes,” a phrase often used
in xenophobic rhetoric aimed at denying people protection in the United States. We are particularly 
dismayed by recent comments indicating that people “should not come” to the United States to seek
asylum and that they could instead seek asylum from their home countries. Again, the message from a
United States of America with a soul must be simply “welcome.”

Responding to Jesus’s Commandment: Love One Another

It is therefore with great concern that we make this request to immediately end the misuse of Title 42. We
must recall Jesus’s message to “love your neighbor as yourself,” for it is by doing so—by recognizing and
respecting the intrinsic dignity of each person—that we live out our faith (Mark 12:31). As Catholics, we
recall Pope Francis’s words, that “if every human being possesses an inalienable dignity, if all people are
my brothers and sisters, and if the world truly belongs to everyone, then it matters little whether my
neighbor was born in my country or elsewhere. My own country also shares responsibility for his or her
development” (Fratelli Tutti, no. 125).

In this year’s message for the World Day for Migrants and Refugees, which Pope Francis titled “Towards
an Ever Wider ‘We,’” he calls us to a personal and collective commitment that “makes no distinction
between natives and foreigners, between residents and guests, since it is a matter of a treasure we hold in
common, from whose care and benefits no one should be excluded.”

We cannot absolve ourselves of our sacred responsibility to care for our migrant siblings. The misuse of
Title 42 is a travesty that perpetuates grave harm not only on the migrant community, but upon all of us
living in the United States. Move the United States towards an ever wider “we”—end the misuse of Title 42.

Sincerely,