5/19/22

By Josh Rubin

Those of us who follow migrant issues closely are watching to see whether Title 42, which employs the racist trope that foreigners carry disease, will be lifted this coming Monday, May 23. Under Trump and Biden, well over a million times we have run people out of our country via expulsion, on planes and on foot, to face danger and privation, all in the name of protecting Americans from Covid, which disease we ourselves carry at some of the highest rates in the world.

It has been plain to most of us that Title 42 is a crude barrier to migration disguised as a health policy. And it is even more obvious right now, as its days are numbered, because a right wing judge is considering blocking its demise and some members of Congress are scraping together an amendment to another bill that would also block the current administration from lifting this order.

As I write this, we don’t know the outcome. But we know this. The date, May 23 is a day we should watch to see what will happen.

So…

A few of us witnesses will journey down to Brownsville, Texas, to join our brothers and sisters to do what we know how to do: watch. To bear witness. While we are there we will visit a place that has never left our hearts, and the people who are the heart and soul of the struggle for the right to migrate, the right to live.

We will be there Monday, down by the bridge to Matamoros, near the river, to see what comes of this. Hope will crest, and we will join our beloved community in that hope.

Join us if you can.

Join us.