[chanting and speaking in spanish] [chanting and speaking in spanish] - ♪ ♪ - president biden promised change at the u. S.

Southern border, including addressing what he called "the trump-created humanitarian crisis" there. But the biden administration has chosen to keep one policy in place that is creating an invisible wall for asylum seekers with no end in sight.

For asylum seekers in nogales, mexico, this is their lifeline. People who are arriving for the first time, they come into our center, where we give them a hot meal, they can take a shower, get a change of clothes, and then we provide medical services or help them connect to other services they might need.

Every day, up to 150 migrants depend on this center. - so we know families living here in nogales who have been here a year, two years, waiting for their chance to have a credible fear interview and to seek their right to asylum.

Now, with title 42, there is no end on the horizon. Title 42 is an obscure health law that gives the u.

S. Government unique powers during a public crisis.

Former president trump first enacted it back in march, 2020, as the pandemic shut down large parts of the country. - then we've had this problem for decades.

For decades. You know the story.

But now it's... With the national emergencies and all of the other things that we've declared, we can actually do something about it.

Under the order, u. S.

Immigration officials can quickly expel migrants seeking asylum as soon as they cross the border. The reasoning: to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

- they've threatened to create a perfect storm that would spread the infection to our border agents, migrants, and to the public at large. We're not gonna let that happen.

What was once a trump-era policy has now become president biden's. - if you take a look at the number of people that are coming, the vast majority, the overwhelming majority of people who are coming to the border, crossing, are being sent back.

- i do. Our exercise of title 42 is the exercise of a public health authority to protect the american public with respect to covid-19 as well as the migrants themselves.

- do you anticipate, with the vaccines becoming more available, that title 42 might be rescinded soon? - senator, i don't have a timetable.

But many leading health experts and organizations outside of the cdc oppose title 42, citing a lack of scientific evidence to support it. ♪ ♪ the united nations is among those publicly calling for the u.

S. Government to repeal the order.

- we believe that there is... It is possible to both protect public health as well as protect that ability to seek asylum.

And so we believe that it is time to end title 42. The reality is, asking people not to come ignores the fact that people have a right to asylum.

What title 42 has done, and what we've seen, is created a lot of chaos and uncertainty, and an incorrect or false narrative around the reality of this moment. And so many people, if they hear that migrants aren't being processed because of the pandemic, they think, well, there's all these migrants who have covid-19, when the reality is that this has been used as a pretext and an excuse not to process migrants.

So it's really a symptom of a broader issue. For years, we've seen these tactics of prevention through deterrence.

As of april, more than 700,000 migrants have been expelled under title 42. Over the past year, less than 1% of them were allowed to apply for asylum.

There are a few exceptions. Unaccompanied children and some families with kids are being allowed into the country.

The biden administration has also recently agreed to admit up to 250 asylum seekers every day who advocates consider vulnerable. But migrants who cannot enter are either returned to their home countries or sent back to mexico.

Many of them are now essentially stranded there, facing dangerous and unsanitary conditions across the border cities. ♪ ♪ - esmeralda and her family fled to nogales in november 2019 to escape persecution.

Like thousands of others during that time, she was forced to put their names on a metering list to make an asylum claim. Before their number could be called, title 42 shut them out.

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