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A year ago, the Trump Administration invoked an obscure infectious disease provision in Title 42 of the US Code, allowing Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents to turn away migrants who show up at the border without giving them the opportunity to request asylum. When a CBP agent applies the Title 42 policy on a migrant, the migrant can only request Convention Against Torture (CAT) protection, which requires a much higher standard to approve compared to asylum requests. When the Trump Administration instituted this policy, many Congressional Democrats including now-Vice President Kamala Harris condemned it as inhumane, illegal under the Refugee Convention, and ineffective at preventing Covid spread.

Now when President Biden was sworn in, he ordered the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to conduct a review of whether the Title 42 policy should be rescinded. And the Biden administration has already stopped applying the policy to unaccompanied minors, whom they have allowed to request asylum. But for the time being the policy is still in effect. So my question is, which Congressional Democrats have called on President Biden to rescind the Title 42 policy?

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Wilson, Meeks, Jayapal, and Thompson Lead More Than Sixty Members of Congress Calling for an end to Title 42 Expulsions, Feb 23, 2021.

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson (FL-24), House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Gregory W. Meeks (NY-5), Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (WA-7), and Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie G. Thompson (MS-2) sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calling on him to end the practice of summarily expelling migrants under Title 42 of the Public Health Services Act as soon as practicable and to employ alternative forms of humanitarian relief for detainees subject to deportation for the remainder of the pandemic.

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The letter was signed by Representatives Frederica S. Wilson (FL-24), Gregory W. Meeks (NY-5), Pramila Jayapal (WA-7), Bennie G. Thompson (MS-2), Nanette Diaz Barragán (CA-44), Joyce Beatty (OH-03), Earl Blumenauer (OR-03), Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Anthony G. Brown (MD-04), Cori Bush (MO-01), Tony Cárdenas (CA-29), André Carson (IN-07), Judy Chu (CA-27), David N. Cicilline (RI-01), Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09), Emanuel Cleaver, II (MO-05), Gerald E. Connolly (VA-11), Diana DeGette (CO-01), Val Demings (FL10), Ted Deutch (FL-22), Lloyd Doggett (D-35), Dwight Evans (PA-03), Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Ruben Gallego (AZ-07), Jesús G. "Chuy" García (IL-04), Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-03), Alcee L. Hastings (FL-20), Jahana Hayes(CT-05), Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr. (GA-04), Mondaire Jones (NY-17), Ro Khanna (CA-17), Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Brenda L. Lawrence (MI-14), Barbara Lee (CA-13), Andy Levin (MI-09), Alan Lowenthal (CA-47), Doris Matsui (CA-06), James P. McGovern (MA-02), Grace Meng (NY-06), Grace F. Napolitano (CA-32), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ( NY-14), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Bobby L. Rush (IL-01), Jan Schakowsky ( IL-09), Adam B. Schiff (CA-28), Albio Sires (NJ-08), Adam Smith (WA-09), Mark Takano (CA-41), Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), Ritchie Torres (NY-15), Juan Vargas (CA-51), Marc Veasey (TX-33), Nydia M. Velázquez (NY-07), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23), Bonnie Watson Coleman, (NJ-12) and Peter Welch (VT-AL).

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