The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) decided Friday to keep the Trump-era policy of expelling illegal immigrants due to the spread of COVID-19. The rule, known as Title 42, allows the administration to expel illegal immigrants who recently were in a country where a communicable disease was present. Data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection show that at least one million people have been expelled since it was initiated in early 2020. “The current reassessment examined the present impact of the pandemic throughout the United States and at the U.S. borders, taking special note of the surge in cases and hospitalizations since December due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant,” CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said in a statement to news outlets on Friday. The agency “continues to emphasize the need for testing, vaccination, and other mitigation measures at border facilities beyond the use of the Order,” the statement added. In …