A federal judge ruled Wednesday in favor of the Biden administration’s defense of the Trump-era Title 42 illegal migrant expulsion policy.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) filed an unopposed stay in the case, the agency said in a statement Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan granted DHS the five-week pause “with great reluctance.”
“Pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 59 and 60, the Court’s inherent authority, and in view of the lack of opposition by Plaintiffs, the government’s representation that the request for a temporary stay is not for the pendency of appeal, but rather to enable the government to make preparations to implement the Court’s Order, the Court, WITH GREAT RELUCTANCE, grants the request,” Sullivan wrote of the order.
Sullivan ruled Tuesday that the Biden administration can’t use Title 42, the Trump-era public health order used to expel illegal migrants to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. (RELATED: Is The Southern Border About To Move From Chaos To Catastrophe?)
Title 42 is responsible for the expulsion of more than one million illegal migrants that crossed the southern border in the last year, when federal border authorities encountered over 2.3 million migrants.
“The delay in implementation of the court’s order will allow the government to prepare for an orderly transition to new policies at the border. But to be clear, under the unopposed motion, Title 42 would remain in place for some period. During the period of this freeze, we will prepare for an orderly transition to new policies at the border,” DHS said.
Statement on Decision Regarding Title 42 ⬇️https://t.co/Up7Zyw0q6H pic.twitter.com/bghUaIcIG
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) November 16, 2022
The Biden administration attempted to end the policy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tried to end its use on May 23, before a federal judge stepped in to pause the order.
The administration’s tune changed when federal authorities encountered a recent surge in illegal migrants coming across the southern border from Venezuela and Cuba.
“We know that smugglers will lie to try to take advantage of vulnerable migrants, putting lives at risk,” DHS said. “We continue to work with countries throughout the Western Hemisphere to take enforcement actions against the smuggling networks that entice migrants to take the dangerous and often deadly journey to our land borders and to address the root causes of irregular migration that are challenging our hemisphere as a whole.”
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