The Biden administration has relied heavily on Title 42 as a border management policy amid record numbers of immigration apprehensions along the southern border. He also recently expanded border removals to deter Venezuelan migrants from entering the United States illegally.
A federal judge on Tuesday, November 15, prohibited federal immigration authorities from using a public health authority known as Title 42 to quickly expel migrants, including Venezuelans.
This blocks the main tool that the Joe Biden administration has used to manage an unprecedented wave of migration along the US-Mexico border.
Judge Emmet Sullivan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia struck down an order issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that has allowed border officials to remove hundreds of thousands of migrants for reasons of public health, after considering that the edict was not promulgated correctly.
First issued in 2020 by the Trump administration at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Title 42 policy is based on a late 19th century law designed to stop the “introduction” of contagious diseases into the US. Migrants processed under Title 42 cannot apply for asylum in that country and are instead summarily removed.
The ruling followed a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has argued that Title 42 puts migrants in danger and violates US asylum law. Migrants on US soil, including those who cross the border illegally, can apply for humanitarian protection.
“This ruling is of enormous importance to asylum seekers and we hope it will put an end to the misuse of public health laws to prevent desperate people from seeking protection,” said Lee Gelernt, the ACLU lawyer who filed the lawsuit, a CBSNews.
The outlet contacted the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, which could ask an appeals court to stay the ruling. Judge Sullivan said he would not pause his ruling pending an appeal.
The Biden administration has relied heavily on Title 42 as a border management policy amid record numbers of immigration apprehensions along the southern border. He also recently expanded border removals to deter Venezuelan migrants from entering the United States illegally.
*Read also: 2022 is the deadliest year for migrants on the US-Mexico border, say organizations
In fiscal year 2022, which ended Sept. 30, US officials along the southern border apprehended more than 2.4 million migrants, the highest annual count on record. More than a million of those encounters resulted in his ejection under Title 42, federal statistics show.
On paper, Title 42 applies to both the land borders with Canada and Mexico and to migrants of all nationalities, but it has been used primarily along the southern border to return adult Mexican and Central American migrants to Mexico. or to the Northern Triangle region of Central America, made up of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
For more than two years, Mexico only allowed the United States to expel Mexican and Central American migrants into its territory. But in October, Mexico announced it would agree to expulsions of Venezuelans as part of a broader strategy that included the United States agreeing to allow up to 24,000 Venezuelans into the country legally.
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