Biden administration announces end to Title 42 expulsions of illegal immigrant children

The White House will no longer expel unaccompanied immigrant children under a controversial pandemic-related health rule, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday, though adults and families can still be removed from the country under the provision. 

The Biden administration said it would cease expelling children under the CDC policy known as Title 42, which allows the government to eject migrants from the country if they are believed to pose a public health risk connected to the pandemic. 

A U.S. district court last week had ruled that the administration could no longer exempt children from the rule, which the White House had been doing since January of 2021. The administration responded by explicitly removing children from the rule's coverage altogether. 

"In the current termination, CDC addresses the court's concerns and has determined, after considering current public health conditions and recent developments, that expulsion of unaccompanied noncitizen children is not warranted to protect the public health," the agency said in a press release.

The federal government "is able to care for unaccompanied noncitizen children while implementing appropriate COVID-19 mitigation measures through a robust network of care facilities that provide testing, vaccinations and medical care," the CDC said.