How did Title 42 and COVID-era policies affect U.S. deportation totals in 2020–2021?
Executive summary
Title 42 — a public‑health authority pressed into service at the U.S.–Mexico border in March 2020 — transformed how removals were counted and carried out in 2020–2021 by converting rapid, summary expulsions into the dominant form of removal and thereby inflating “returns” while reducing access to asylum and formal deportation processes [1] [2]. The policy produced very high monthly expulsion totals (peaking in mid‑2021), concentrated among single adults and repeat crossers, and reshaped enforcement statistics even as it failed to deliver lasting reductions in unauthorized migration [3] pandemic-policy-that-has-reshaped-immigration-enforcement-at-u-s-mexico-border/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">[4] [5].
1. Title 42 changed the mechanics: expulsions, not deportations
When CDC authority under Title 42 was invoked on March 21, 2020, Border Patrol and CBP began applying a public‑health order to turn people away rapidly at the border rather than place them into the standard immigration (Title 8) removal pipeline, meaning most encounters became “expulsions” without formal removal orders or access to immigration courts [1] [2]. That shift matters for totals: expulsions were counted as removals from U.S. custody quickly and in large numbers, producing very high repatriation figures even though they are legally and procedurally distinct from deportations carried out under immigration law [6] [2].
2. Massive monthly volumes and a mid‑2021 peak
Across the life of Title 42, CBP averaged tens of thousands of expulsions per month — roughly 75,900 expulsions monthly on average — and usage peaked in May 2021 when 57 percent of all border encounters (about 113,800) were expelled under the order [3]. By one accounting that spans the pandemic years, nearly 1.8 million expulsions happened between April 2020 and March 2022, with single adults accounting for almost nine‑in‑ten expulsions — a pattern concentrated in 2020–2021 [4] [3].
3. The illusion of higher “removal” totals and the role of repeat crossers
Title 42 produced very high aggregate repatriation numbers quickly, but a significant share of encounters reflected the same people attempting multiple crossings; repeat crossers accounted for roughly a quarter of encounters at times and contributed to high recidivism rates in late 2021 [7] [4]. That means headline removal counts rose even while the policy did not necessarily produce sustained net declines in unauthorized presence, because many expelled people soon tried again [7] [5].
4. Who was and wasn’t subject to expulsion in 2020–2021
Legal developments and operational practice narrowed Title 42’s application: unaccompanied children were exempted from expulsions after court rulings and CDC notices beginning in late 2020 and early 2021, and Mexico’s willingness to accept returns constrained how families were processed, shifting many into Title 8 procedures instead [3] [8]. Those caveats matter because the distribution of expulsions by demographic group — overwhelmingly single adults — reflected both policy choices and third‑country cooperation [4] [3].
5. Policy effects beyond the raw numbers: deterrence, process, and downstream deportations
While expulsions under Title 42 produced very large short‑term repatriation totals in 2020–2021, analysts concluded the policy did not deliver durable deterrence and complicated asylum access and adjudication backlogs; the end of Title 42 later required agencies to pivot toward formal deportations and other deterrent measures [9] [10]. Importantly, because expulsions bypassed immigration courts, they masked how many people were formally “deported” under Title 8 versus summarily expelled under public‑health authority, altering the picture of enforcement intensity in those years [2] [6].
6. Competing narratives and the evidence
Advocacy and government accounts tell different stories: advocates emphasize humanitarian harm and the policy’s role in producing millions of expulsions (for example, reports citing over 460,000 expulsions in the March 2020–January 2021 window under the Trump administration and large increases under Biden through 2023), while enforcement agencies point to rapid returns and operational necessity during a pandemic [11] [6]. Independent analysts underscore that Title 42 inflated encounter‑based removal totals through quick expulsions and repeat encounters, complicating comparisons of “deportation” volumes across administrations [3] [4].