US Supreme Court Stays Termination of Title 42

Afp, Ap and Reuters

Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday December 20, 2022, p. 5

Washington. The president of the United States Supreme Court, John Roberts, yesterday temporarily suspended the termination of the controversial Title 42 health policy, imposed in March 2020 during the government of President Donald Trump, and whose purpose was to prevent migrants from entering the territory to stop the spread of covid-19 and which was to end on December 21.

The decision of the Supreme Court was the response to the request of 19 governors of conservative states to keep the health regulations in force to prevent an uncontrollable wave of migration.

Yesterday, thousands of people packed shelters in Mexican border cities. Authorities in the Rio Grande Valley have encountered between 900 and 1,200 migrants daily for the past two weeks, according to CNN. Volunteers in the Texan city of El Paso even welcome them into their own homes.

Furthermore, US authorities have arrested more than 2.3 million migrants at the southern border in the past 11 months, the newspaper reported. The Washington Post.

Roberts asked the administration of President Joe Biden to respond to the appeal of the Republican states this Tuesday before 5 p.m. and state its position on whether Title 42 should end or be expanded.

State governments alluded to the chaos that awaits the United States, since according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), irregular border crossings could triple to 18,000 per day, which will increase law enforcement, education and health care costs of entitiesthe governors argued.

In addition, public health and police security services, among others, will be affected, and they accused the federal government of not having a plan to deal with the increase in migrants.

Options

The situation before the decision of the Supreme Court implies that the possibility remains open that Title 42 is suspended this week or that the court decides to maintain the measure while it reviews the case.

The regulation made it possible for undocumented immigrants to be deported minutes after their arrival on US soil, in addition to eliminating the possibility of requesting asylum and filing lawsuits, said the post.

Last November, a lower court ordered the Biden government to suspend Title 42 and the president requested that he be given until December 21 to comply with the ruling, which the Court granted.

The DHS explained that its strategy foresees thousands of contracts and an increase in resources for transportation, but admitted that the system It is not designed to deal with the current migratory flow.

DHS last week updated a six-pillar plan that calls for expanded use of expedited removal proceedings, as well as expanded legal pathways for migrants to enter the country from abroad, similar to a program launched for Venezuelans. in October.

The Biden administration had been preparing for Title 42 to end this week and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a conference that the White House was seeking more than $3 billion from Congress to pay for additional staff. , technology, immigration detention facilities and transportation at the US-Mexico border.

The request for additional resources comes as US authorities prepared for the possibility that between 9,000 and 14,000 people a day would try to cross into the United States if Title 42 were lifted, roughly double the current rate.

The fact that Title 42 ends in a couple of days does not mean that the border is openadded Jean-Pierre hours before the Supreme Court blocked the lifting of Title 42.

The spokeswoman mentioned the risk that human traffickers take advantage of the lifting of health regulations to spread misinformation among the undocumented and encourage them to cross.

desolation

CNN showed a group of devastated asylum seekers in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, who claimed to have arrived there because there was a promise that on December 21 the border would open and they would be able to cross into the United States legally.

Since Biden took office in January 2021, around half of the nearly 4 million undocumented immigrants on the US-Mexico border – a record number – have been removed under Title 42, while the other half have been allowed to enter the United States to pursue their immigration cases.

New York received since the early hours of yesterday buses from various Texan counties, loaded with asylum seekers who were sent there on the orders of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who anticipated the lifting of Title 42 with the intensification of his operation Estrella Solitary, which consists of taking migrants out of their state and sending them to the calls sanctuary cities from the country.

Although the US media did not give the number of buses or undocumented immigrants that have arrived in the city, local authorities said that the New York shelter system is already overwhelmed.