Title 42 border restrictions are ending. Now what?

A US pandemic-era border rule restricting asylum seekers ends; Israel and Islamic Jihad militant group violence intensifies in Gaza.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

What to expect once Title 42 expires

Mario Tama/Getty Images

• Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allowed the US to expel migrants at the southern border without processing asylum claims, ends at midnight Thursday. [Vox / Nicole Narea]
• Since March 2020, the US has used the rule 2.7 million times to turn away migrants on the grounds that doing so prevented the spread of the coronavirus. [CBS News / Camilo Montoya-Galvez]
• The US will return to a policy that gives migrants the chance to have their asylum cases heard. However, those who cross improperly will face more severe penalties, like a five-year ban on reentry. [NPR / Vanessa Romo, Joel Rose, and Marisa Peñaloza]
• Border officials apprehended a record 11,000 people trying to enter the US on Tuesday and Wednesday; as many as 10,000 migrants could cross per day once Title 42 ends. [NBC News / Daniella Silva]
• To deal with a potential influx of migrants, the Biden administration will block asylum seekers who travel to the US through a third country without filing claims in that country. [CNN / Dakin Andone and Priscilla Alvarez]
• The US will continue accepting 30,000 sponsored migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua each month, and open processing centers in the Western hemisphere where people can apply for legal entry to the US, Canada, or Spain. [Associated Press / Colleen Long]
• Meantime, the US Covid-19 public health emergency will also expire Thursday, ending three years of expanded access to health care. [Vox / Dylan Scott]

📍 If you read just one story

Vox’s Nicole Narea explains how President Biden dropped his plans to restore US support for vulnerable immigrants and embraced Trump’s border policies. [Vox / Nicole Narea]

Israel and Gaza militants trade airstrikes

• Thursday, Israeli airstrikes killed two Islamic Jihad commanders in Gaza as fighting between Israel and the militant group entered a third day. [AP / Fares Akram and Ilan Ben Zion]
• The latest violence erupted Tuesday, when Israeli strikes killed three Islamic Jihad members and 10 Palestinian civilians. [New York Times / Isabel Kershner]
• Islamic Jihad fired over 500 rockets toward Israel in retaliation, while Israeli airstrikes continued targeting the group’s members and infrastructure. [CNN]
• The strikes have killed at least 28 Palestinians this week and injured dozens; Israel suffered its first death Thursday after a rocket from Gaza hit a building. [BBC / Raffi Berg and Rushdi Abu Alouf]

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Thursday, the EPA proposed new restrictions on carbon emissions from natural gas and coal plants that could help the US achieve 100 percent clean energy by 2035. [Vox / Rebecca Leber]

• Peru will extradite the Dutch man suspected in the 2005 disappearance of American teen Natalee Holloway to the United States to face extortion and fraud charges. [USA Today / Natalie Neysa Alund]

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the country needs time to receive more Western weapons before launching its spring offensive against Russia. [BBC / Hugo Bachega]

• This week, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that bans many Chinese citizens from buying property in the state, in a bid to appear tough on Beijing. [Vox / Li Zhou]

“This rule will only jeopardize the lives of people seeking safety and create even more chaos and as the administration well knows, it’s also blatantly illegal.”

[Melissa Crow, of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, on Biden’s new border policy / Vox]

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