‘A scapegoating’: racial equality expert on how public health is weaponized against immigrants

Columbia University's Merlin Chowkwanyun says public health has a long history of being used against asylum seekers - from repatriation to segregation

In one of Donald Trump's many day one executive orders and proclamations, he cited not just safety and national security as a reason to crack down on immigration - but also public health.

It's not the first time the president has used public health to block immigration. In the early days of the Covid pandemic, his administration used a dormant wartime law from 1944, known as Title 42, to invoke public health restrictions to turn back migrants at the US-Mexico border. It expired in 2023, during the Biden administration, but experts believe it could be revived as Trump's advisers have reportedly spent months trying to find a disease that would help them be able to close the border.