Harold Koh leaves State Department post, rips President Biden’s use of Trump-era Title 42

Photo courtesy of Yale Law School

Harold Koh, a senior State Department official, leaves his post over the Biden administration's use of Title 42 to expel asylum seekers on supposed public health grounds, calling it “illegal,” “inhumane” and “not worthy of this Administration.” https://t.co/6SjD9ralXX pic.twitter.com/z58HuHkDis

— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) October 4, 2021

Alex Thompson and Alexander Ward  for Politico report that Senior State Department official Harold Koh is leaving his role in the Biden administration. In a detailed legal memo dated October 2 and obtained by POLITICO, Yale law professor and former dean Harold Koh, the sole political appointee on the State Department’s legal team, called the use of the public health authority known as Title 42 “illegal,” “inhumane,” and “not worthy of this Administration that I so strongly support.”

“I believe this Administration’s current implementation of the Title 42 authority continues to violate our legal obligation not to expel or return (“refouler”) individuals who fear persecution, death, or torture, especially migrants fleeing from Haiti,” the memo reads. He added that “lawful, more humane alternatives plainly exist.”

Koh was the State Department legal adviser from 2009-2013 in the Obama administration.  He is taking a role at Oxford University. 

KJ