Federal judge blocks US from using Title 42 to ban illegal migrants

by Jacob Fuller

Trey Paul, FISM News 

 

The Title 42 order that has allowed U.S. border officials to quickly force migrants to leave after they illegally crossed the border may soon be void.

U.S. Judge Emmet Sullivan issued an order on Tuesday barring federal authorities from using the Trump-era policy which was also used by the Biden administration.

The order will not go into effect until five weeks from the decision because an unopposed stay motion was filed by the Biden administration.

“The delay in implementation of the court’s order will allow the government to prepare for an orderly transition to new policies at the border,” said Department of Homeland Security officials in this statement. “During the period of this freeze, we will prepare for an orderly transition to new policies at the border.”

Recent data shows there are at least 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, which has been propelled by a record-breaking surge in migrant encounters along the southern border. Republican lawmakers argue that ending Title 42 is only going to make the border crisis worse.

Congressman Ronny Jackson of Texas posted this on social media: “Title 42 was just ended and a new surge of illegals will now head for our southern border. Pray for our brave Border Patrol agents, it’s a shame that Biden won’t lift a finger to support them. 49 days until we can stop the madness in the House Majority!”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott also voiced his concern about the decision to ban Title 42 by tweeting:

“This will further signal to cartels, human smugglers, & illegal immigrants that the border is wide open — inciting more violence & lawlessness. Disastrous.”

Title 42 was originally enacted by the CDC in March 2020, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Authorities were able to quickly turn away migrants on the grounds of public health in an effort to protect the United States.

As a part of his ruling on Tuesday, Judge Sullivan claimed Title 42 is “arbitrary and capricious” and violates the Administrative Procedure Act.

“It is unreasonable for the CDC to assume that it can ignore the consequences of any actions it chooses to take in the pursuit of fulfilling its goals, particularly when those actions included the extraordinary decision to suspend the codified procedural and substantive rights of noncitizens seeking safe harbor,” Judge Sullivan wrote.

Texas Congressman Chip Roy shared his views of Judge Sullivan and Title 42 by tweeting:

“A known activist federal judge has blocked the use of Title 42 at our southern border. This crucial policy was used 80k times last month ALONE & has been the last line of defense for CBP under Biden’s DHS Congress can no longer sit on their hands – We need border security now.”

According to Pew research data, nearly 1.8 million migrants were expelled at the U.S.-Mexico border under Title 42. It happened between April 2020, the first full month after Title 42 went into effect, and March 2022, the most recent month with available data.

At the end of March, a group of Texas lawmakers including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security urging them to keep Title 42 in place. They said DHS officials are “unprepared to handle a likely unprecedented increase in apprehensions along the southwest border.”

Rosa Maria Gonzalez, the head of the Mexican lower house of Congress migration committee, said the ruling was likely to be a double-edged sword for Mexico.

Gonzalez said the ruling should relieve pressure on Mexico’s northern border by reducing the build-up of people there under the expulsion order, but also admitted it risked encouraging more people to make the journey north to pursue U.S. asylum claims.

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