The Supreme Court on Monday temporarily halted the end of Title 42.
The temporary hold comes after 19 states filed an emergency appeal Monday asking the court to block a lower court ruling that required President Joe Biden to end Title 42 expulsions by Wednesday. Each side now has additional time to file arguments before the court.
The Biden administration must respond to the emergency appeal by 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts indicated.
NOW: Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts puts temporary hold on dissolving of Title 42, asks for response from Biden administration by tomorrow at 5 p.m. pic.twitter.com/DfHWRyPlnY
— Kaelan Deese (@KaelanDC) December 19, 2022
Title 42 is a Trump-era policy that allowed authorities to expel certain migrants back to their native country without legal review in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. (RELATED: Eric Adams Warns New York City May Have To Slash Programs To Accommodate Migrants)
The policy was previously expanded under the Biden administration, but a judge ruled in November that Title 42 violated federal law and said the administration had until Dec. 21 to end it. The group of 19 states lost their appeal Friday in a lower court, prompting them to take their appeal to the Supreme Court. The states argued ending the policy would cause harm to their states due to the massive influx of migrants expected to cross the border if the policy is terminated.
The Biden administration attempted to end the policy in May, before Republican states succeeded in having a federal judge intervene and keep Title 42 in place.
The southern border has already seen a record-high influx of migrants in fiscal year (FY) 2023, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection logging over 230,000 migrant encounters since FY 2023 began in October. Border patrol agents in the El Paso sector stopped migrants 2,460 times per day on average during a weekend in December, ABC News reported. Migrant encounters are expected to increase, should Title 42 be terminated.