DES MOINES, IOWA — Joe Henry, Political Director for the Iowa Chapter of LULAC, is welcoming the chance for the US to again open its doors to asylum seekers from war-torn and poverty stricken Central American nations as the use of Title 42 to block migrants from entering the US during the COVID-19 pandemic comes to an end on Thursday.

Henry met with a group of immigration lawyers on Wednesday on a Zoom call. He said based on the last immigrant wave of kids in 2014, he estimates Iowa will see maybe around a thousand or so immigrants. That could take years for them to arrive based on the large backlog of asylum requests.

We’re glad Title 42 is coming to an end, we’ve had many people fleeing violence from Central America work called the northern triangle who are seeking refuge here in our country,” said Henry.

He added that 2.8 million times refugees or people seeking asylum have been turned back since 2022 due to title 42 which is an old Law that goes back to 1944.

“We’re a country of immigrants we should do our part I mean we’re doing our part with refugees from Ukraine and we should be doing the same thing with the people are refugees fleeing violence south of the border,” said Henry. “We’re all immigrants except Native Americans. We need to be doing our part and it’s also in our constitution.”

Henry said the Biden administration needs to come up with funding to hire more judges and processing workers to hear all the cases, of those wanting in to the US, and seeking asylum.

These people who are seeking refuge have given up everything,” said Henry. “The fact that they were to go back to their countries they would be persecuted, so what is happening in those countries is already a matter of public record, so that could be noted in noted in the paperwork, and determined by a judge.”