The White House defended its use of a Trump-era health policy to deport migrants even as the U.S. moves to lift Canada and Mexico border restrictions for fully vaccinated foreign nationals.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters the eased travel restrictions will allow only fully vaccinated foreign nationals with “proper documentation” to enter the U.S.
Immigration lawyers and some Democrats have alleged an inconsistency around vaccination status in the Biden administration’s border policies.

Migrants expelled from the U.S. and sent back to Mexico under Title 42, walk towards Mexico at the Paso del Norte International border bridge, in this picture taken from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico October 1, 2021.
Jose Luis Gonzalez | Reuters

The Biden administration on Wednesday defended its use of a Trump-era health law to deport undocumented migrants at the nation’s borders, even as it lifts restrictions for fully vaccinated foreign nationals traveling from Canada or Mexico into the U.S.
The law, known as Title 42, “remains in place,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said when asked whether fully vaccinated migrants seeking asylum can enter the U.S.

She told reporters Wednesday that the eased travel restrictions will allow only fully vaccinated foreign nationals with “proper documentation” to enter the U.S.
Then-President Donald Trump’s administration introduced Title 42 in March 2020 over concerns about the Covid pandemic. More than 1 million migrants have been expelled under Title 42 since it went into effect in March 2020, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Senior administration officials on Tuesday said the U.S. is preparing to reopen its land borders with Canada and Mexico for fully vaccinated foreign nationals in early November, putting an end to a policy that has curbed nonessential travel since it was implemented at the outset of the pandemic. 

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In practice, Title 42 means that anyone caught crossing the border illegally, namely without a visa to enter or without going through a formal border checkpoint, can be deported immediately without being offered the opportunity to claim asylum in the United States.
Absent Title 42, U.S. law requires that all migrants who cross the border, with or without papers, be given the opportunity to seek asylum.

In August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the policy would remain in effect until there is no longer a danger of people who aren’t U.S. citizens bringing Covid-19 into the country when they cross the border. Unaccompanied children are exempt from the health law. 
“The Title 42 restrictions are really about protecting the migrants themselves, the DHS workforce and local communities,” a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday. “There’s a strong public health basis, for the moment, for continuing with the Title 42 restrictions.”
An official also noted that the health policy remains necessary because social distancing is difficult to enforce in Border Patrol facilities where migrants are typically held. 

Confusion over policy

Immigration lawyers and some Democrats have alleged an inconsistency around vaccination status in the Biden administration’s border policies.
John Bruning, a staff attorney of the Refugee & Immigrant Program at The Advocates for Human Rights, criticized the White House and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“How is this reconciled with Mayorkas doubling down on Title 42 expulsions? Migrants are being summarily deported whether or not they have been vaccinated,” Bruning said in a Twitter post Wednesday.
Julian Castro, a former Housing and Urban Development secretary for the Obama administration, said in a Twitter post that it was “great news” that borders will be reopened but called for an end to Title 42. 
“Now our ports of entry should reopen to allow people to make an asylum claim,” Castro said in the post on Wednesday. “Title 42 is a stain on this nation and it should end.”
The decision to maintain Title 42 comes as the Biden administration grapples with the highest number of migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in two decades.
Mayorkas also defended the administration’s use of Title 42 on Tuesday, telling Yahoo News that Title 42 is a “Centers for Disease Control public health authority” and not an “immigration policy.” 
“It is not an immigration policy that we in this administration would embrace,” Mayorkas said in an interview with Yahoo. “But we view it as a public health imperative as the Centers for Disease Control has so ordered.”
“We’re in the midst of a pandemic,” he said. “For anyone to think it’s business as usual I think would be, frankly, ignoring a pandemic that has taken more than 700,000 American lives.”
The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, or RAICES, said in a Twitter post Tuesday that the Biden administration was expelling asylum seekers without due process and “sending families and children back to imminent danger in the name of ‘public health.'”
RAICES was among several groups that challenged the health policy in a lawsuit last month. A U.S. appeals court recently ruled that the Biden administration could continue using Title 42 while the lawsuit proceeds.

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A healthcare worker prepares to inject an AstraZeneca coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine.Eloisa LopezAstraZeneca issued updated Phase 3 trial data for its Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday after facing criticism earlier this week over a preliminary report. The company now says its vaccine is 76% effective in protecting against symptomatic cases of virus. A release issued on Monday reported a symptomatic efficacy rate of 79%. The updated report maintains that the vaccine is 100% effective against severe disease and hospitalization. A slate of U.S. health officials criticized the company in recent days for what some saw as data cherry-picking in an effort to make the results appear more favorable. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Tuesday revealed it was informed that the U.K.-based company may have included information in its U.S. results that provided an “incomplete view of the efficacy data.”Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House chief medical advisor and director at the NIAID, called the situation “unfortunate” and said it was likely AstraZeneca would issue a modified statement.”This is really what you call an unforced error because the fact is this is very likely a very good vaccine,” Fauci told ABC’s Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America.” “This kind of thing does … really cast some doubt about the vaccines and maybe contribute to the hesitancy. It was not necessary.”The updated results include data collected from 190 symptomatic cases, an increase of roughly 50 cases studied compared with the data set released on Monday. The findings suggest the vaccine is more effective in patients aged 65 and older than previously understood, with a newly reported efficacy rate of 85% for that population, up from a previously stated 80%. —CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. and Steve Kopack contributed to this report. This is breaking news. Please check back for updates. More

Mortgage demand rose last week, but rising interest rates may stand in the way of stronger volume.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) decreased to 6.48% from 6.71%.
Mortgage applications to purchase a home increased 2% from the previous week and were 36% lower than the same week one year ago.

A For Sale sign displayed in front of a home on February 22, 2023 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Mortgage demand has increased for three straight weeks now, as interest rates dropped in response to the recent bank failures.
But rates are rising again, and that could put a damper on application volume.

Total mortgage application volume rose 3% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) decreased to 6.48% from 6.71%, with points decreasing to 0.66 from 0.79 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. It was the lowest level in a month but still much higher than the same week one year ago, when the rate was about 4.5%.
“Treasury yields declined last week, driven by uncertainty over the health of the banking sector and worries about the broader impact on the economy,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s deputy chief economist. “However, mortgage rates have not dropped as much as Treasury rates due to increased MBS market volatility.”
Applications to refinance a home loan increased 5% for the week but were 68% lower than the same week one year ago. Refinance demand is highly sensitive to weekly rate moves, but there are precious few borrowers right now who can still benefit from a refinance at today’s higher interest rates.
Mortgage applications to purchase a home increased 2% from the previous week and were 36% lower than the same week one year ago. Today’s homebuyers may be less influenced by weekly interest rate moves and more influenced by the state of the economy. The stress on the banking sector, high home prices and a tight supply of homes for sale have all been weighing heavily on consumer confidence.

With fears over the banking sector subsiding somewhat, at least in financial markets, mortgage rates moved higher to start this week, according to a separate index from Mortgage News Daily. On Tuesday, it put the average rate at 6.75%.
All ears are on the Federal Reserve, which is expected to raise the federal funds rate by a quarter point, due to the stress on the banking sector. Mortgage rates don’t follow the Fed exactly, but they do respond to its perception of the overall economy.
“Either way, they will also be updating their rate outlook for the coming months/years and that’s arguably even more important than what they do with [the] rate hike,” wrote Matthew Graham, chief operating officer of Mortgage News Daily.  

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NASA announced Friday that Boeing’s Starliner capsule “Calypso” will stay at the International Space Station twice as long as the mission originally planned.
Calypso’s mission is now expected to return to Earth on June 22, departing the ISS at 11:42 p.m. ET on June 21 before landing at 6:26 a.m. ET.
Boeing’s crew flight test represents a major step toward NASA certifying the company to carry crew on operational missions with the spacecraft.

A satellite image shows an overview of the International Space Station with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, June 7, 2024.
Maxar Technologies | Via Reuters

Boeing’s Starliner capsule “Calypso” will stay at the International Space Station twice as long as the mission originally planned, NASA announced Friday.
This developmental nature of the mission, known as Boeing’s crew flight test, is on display as the company and NASA are performing a variety of tests on Starliner while it is docked with the ISS. The mission represents the first time Starliner carries crew, with Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams set to fly the spacecraft back to Earth next week.

Before launching on June 5, Boeing and NASA planned for Starliner to be in space for nine days.
But Calypso’s mission is now expected to return to Earth on June 22, departing the ISS at 11:42 p.m. ET on June 21 before landing roughly six and half hours later, at 6:26 a.m. ET. That means the Starliner crew flight test will now last at least 17 days, about double the original plan, for further spacecraft testing.
NASA said those tests include operating the capsule’s hatch, firing seven of its thrusters and checking the cabin air temperature, all while the program’s managers and astronauts “finalize departure planning and operations.”
The agency also noted that Starliner would “repeat some ‘safe haven’ testing,” but did not explain why that was necessary. A safe haven test is when astronauts on the ISS use a spacecraft for shelter during an emergency. NASA said “the spacecraft remains cleared for crew emergency return scenarios within the flight rules,” referencing the possible scenario of an unexpected evacuation of the astronauts off the ISS.
NASA, after publishing an update Friday, deferred CNBC’s request for further clarification until a press conference that will be held Tuesday before the planned departure.

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The crew flight test represents a final major step before NASA certifies Boeing to fly crew on operational, six-month missions. Yet, similar to the previous two spaceflights that were uncrewed, Starliner is running into several problems during the mission.
Before the launch, a single leak in Calypso’s helium propulsion system was identified. The leak was deemed to be stable and not a threat to the capsule’s safety, so the launch moved forward and was successful in delivering Starliner to the ISS.
However, since docking with the ISS, the spacecraft has sprung four additional helium leaks. NASA earlier this week wrote that Calypso “has plenty of margin to support the return trip” based on the current rate of the five leaks, with 10 times the needed capacity of helium in its tanks.

While Boeing was guiding Starliner in for docking, another issue — which NASA says is separate from the helium leaks — cropped up with the spacecraft propulsion system. Starliner has 28 jets, known as its reaction control system, or RCS, engines, which help the spacecraft make small movements in orbit.
Five of the 28 thrusters were not operating but after troubleshooting, Boeing recovered four of Starliner’s malfunctioning jets and NASA allowed the spacecraft to dock.
NASA said Friday that it would perform hot fire testing before undocking with seven of the eight thrusters near the spacecraft’s tail. Hot fires are very brief bursts of the thrusters, with Boeing looking to evaluate the thrusters’ performance. NASA did not specify whether any of the seven thrusters that will undergo testing were the same as the five that stopped operating before docking.
Boeing Vice President Mark Nappi said in a statement that despite the mission doubling in length, “We have plenty of margin and time on station” remaining.
Starliner was once seen as a competitor to SpaceX’s Dragon, which has made 12 crewed trips to the ISS over the past four years. However, various setbacks and delays have steadily slipped Starliner into a backup position for NASA, with the agency planning to have SpaceX and Boeing fly astronauts on alternating flights.

Boeing’s Starliner capsule is seen while approaching the International Space Station with two NASA astronauts on board on June 6, 2024.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the duration of the flight test.

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