The Biden administration has asked Chief Justice John Roberts to rule against 19 GOP-led states that have sued to keep the Title 42 policy in effect.
Title 42 is legally based on an order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to prevent the coronavirus from spreading across the border, but it is now known that the CDC’s involvement in its implementation was the result of political pressure from the Trump White House.
According to him Title 42, border officials can bypass asylum processing for migrants from many countries and quickly expel them back to their country of origin or, in the case of many Central Americans, to the Mexican border.
The regulation has occupied a central place in the political debate on immigration and border policy. Most Republicans and some Democrats say it is essential for border control, while immigration advocates and most Democrats oppose it because it undermines the asylum system.
In its response to Roberts, the administration publicly acknowledged that the public health reasoning was no longer valid.
But states opposed to lifting it argued that doing so would further fuel chaos at the border.
The Biden administration told Roberts that the Department of Homeland Security is ready to return to Title 8. “The government is prepared to do that, including increasing resources and invoking its Title 8 authorities to implement new policies in response to the temporary interruption”.
The administration requested a short stay to lift Title 42, keeping the policy in effect until December 27 if Roberts rules before Friday or giving the administration two business days to prepare if the ruling comes later.
“That brief continuation of the suspension would allow the government to prepare again for a full return to Title 8 operations, with new policies tailored to the consequences of the end of the Title 42 orders – a complex multi-agency undertaking with policies, dimensions operations and foreign relations that has been paused or partially undone in light of the administrative suspension,” the officials said.
Lawyers for the defendants, who include immigrant and civil rights groups such as the ACLU, accused the states of creating a backlog in the government’s plans to liquidate Title 42, perpetuating harm for migrants.
