Title 42, a Trump-era program used to deport more than 1 million people at the country’s southern border, has been prohibited by a federal judge.
Emmet Sullivan, a Bill Clinton appointee to the U.S. District Court in Washington, claimed on Tuesday that the order was “arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act” and that it hadn’t been updated to reflect the pandemic’s current state, which includes widely accessible vaccines, treatments, and an increase in travel to the country.
According to Sullivan’s 49-page opinion, his decision prevents families from being deported following the Title 42 policy, which intended to exclude many migrants because they might be coronavirus-infected. The judge’s other two-page order from Tuesday, which appears to be more comprehensive, declares null and void “all orders and decision memos issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suspending the right to introduce certain persons into the United States.”
The Department of Justice filed an unopposed stay motion on Tuesday night, asking for a five-week postponement before needing to lift Title 42, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, which the White House cited in its response to POLITICO. Sullivan granted the request on Wednesday morning, and the injunction will now take effect on December 21.
“The court’s order will not be implemented immediately so that the administration may be ready for a smooth transition to new border procedures. To be clear, though, Title 42 would continue under the unopposed move. The DHS statement stated that we would be ready for a smooth transition to new border rules while this freeze is in effect.
The Biden administration has continued to broaden the policy, most recently using it to deport Venezuelan migrants who crossed the border illegally as part of its new humanitarian parole program for them. The pandemic-related health order tied to longstanding quarantine powers dating to the 1940s was implemented during the Trump administration, but the Biden administration has continued to do so.
For motives that had little to do with preventing the spread of disease, both administrations appear to have relied on health-related authority to restrict migration flows. The Biden administration was prepared to relax the limits in May this year. Still, a federal court in Louisiana acting on a lawsuit brought by 24 Republican-led states blocked the move.
The Biden administration’s attempt to abolish Title 42 was thwarted by former President Donald Trump’s appointee, U.S. District Judge Robert R. Summerhays, whose ruling the Department of Justice challenged.
As POLITICO reported last spring, the White House exhaled in relief at Summerhays’ decision. The Southern border is still a problem for the Biden administration since there are still questions about how well the country’s immigration system will function after Title 42 ends.
However, the continuous application of the policy has caused a rift between the White House and immigrant rights activists, who have said that the Biden administration is still following Trump’s playbook.
President Joe Biden pledged during the 2020 election cycle to create a “fair and humane” immigration system and repeal Trump administration deportation laws like Title 42.
