MADRID, Spain.- Luisina Judge Robert Summerhay issued this Friday a preliminary court order to extend Title 42, an agreement through which migrants who arrive in the United States from Mexico or Canada are automatically expelled.
Summerhay supported the lawsuit from 24 states arguing that suspending the regulations would cause the spread of the coronavirus, as well as that the border influx implies costs for services for new arrivals, such as health care and education.
As reported Washington Post, the judge said in this regard: “These costs are not recoverable. (…) The plaintiff states thus satisfy the irreparable damage requirement for a preliminary injunction.”
In addition, he noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which originally issued the order to end Title 42, did not subject the decision to public comment, and that the government could have taken into account the states’ concerns and perhaps have devised an alternative to his “blanket” order.
The judge’s position contrasts with President Joe Biden’s intention to reopen the borders, and means the Department of Homeland Security is expected to continue expelling migrants as the lawsuit makes its way through the courts.
Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said the government will appeal the decision and that the CDC had legally determined that the current conditions of the pandemic made mass evictions unnecessary.
Title 42
Title 42 is a public health order that was passed in 1893 to protect the United States from the many cholera and yellow fever epidemics that occurred at that time. Since then, it has been applied very rarely, but former President Donald Trump activated it in March 2020, in order to eject quickly undocumented migrants detained at land borders with Canada or Mexico.
Almost two million migrants have been deported since Title 42 was reactivated.
On April 1, after calls from Democratic leaders and skepticism about its effectiveness, the CDC decided to lift the emergency public health order.
Republican attorneys general from more than 20 states, led by Louisiana, Missouri and Arizona, quickly sued the administration to stop the rescission, saying in court records that Title 42 was “the only safety valve preventing already disastrous border control policies of this administration descended into unmitigated catastrophe.”
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