SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Title 42 was set to end in roughly a month's time, which would end a pandemic policy that turns asylum seekers and migrants away at the U.S. border due to COVID-19.
But on Monday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Title 42 from ending.
"In a sense, it does feel like a back to square one because this is probably going to be ongoing for, if not this election season, it'll be going to be ongoing until the next presidential election,” said Border Angeles Executive Director Dulce Garcia.
Garcia said that the move to block Title 42 is frustrating.
"Here we are, a year later, when more people are vaccinated in the U.S.; when the folk in Tijuana that want to make their claim to asylum have already been vaccinated and we know there's a safe way to process them. So, it's infuriating,” Garcia said.
San Diego County Board of Supervisors Nathan Fletcher and Nora Vargas will present a plan to create temporary shelters to prepare for a possible influx of migrants once Title 42 ends.
Garcia said despite this latest news, they're still planning for that day to come.
"We're planning ahead with the directors at the shelter, keeping everyone informed,” Garcia said. "We'll see how these things develop in the next few days and next few weeks. But, we're going to do the best we can to submit Title 42 exemptions and hopefully get people across the border. But nobody knows what's going to happen in the next few days."
As things are working in Washington D.C., Garcia said there's both hope and skepticism that something can get done.
"And it shouldn't be left for policies that were missed used with the guise of protecting public health to create policies of deterrence for migrants,” Garcia said.
