Judge Robert Summerhays, writing in a 47-page ruling, decided that President Joe Biden’s administration couldn’t drop Title 42, which it had hoped to end on Monday.
Summerhays, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, wrote that “the public interest would be served by a preliminary injunction preventing the termination” of Title 42.
The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement Friday it planned to appeal the ruling, saying that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “invoked its authority under Title 42 due to the unprecedented public-health dangers caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.” But the CDC now says that the order is no longer necessary.
The order allows the government to expel migrants who have recently been in a country where a “communicable disease” was present, and both former Trump and President Joe Biden have kept it in place. In effect, the order prevents migrants from lodging asylum claims on public health grounds.
On Friday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott claimed the “federal court announced today what we have known all along: President Biden is ignoring federal law with his open border policies.”
In a press release, Abbott added, “While today’s court ruling rejecting President Biden’s ending of Title 42 expulsions is a positive development, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants remain at our southern border ready to flood into Texas.”
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, speaking on Fox News, said he wanted the Senate to vote to “preserve” Title 42. “Ending Title 42 is madness,” he said.
Also speaking on Fox, U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, a Republican from Texas, complained that the country would have to spend money “educating, incarcerating and medicating millions and millions of people.” (Gov. Abbott also recently complained of educating undocumented students, saying he hoped to challenge a Supreme Court ruling that requires it.)
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has previously referred to the humanitarian crisis on the border as an “invasion,” also joined the chorus of Texas Republicans celebrating the “great news” that Title 42 would remain in place for now.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, claiming that ending Title 42 was part of Biden’s “lawless agenda,” said the policy constituted “one of the last remaining protections we have from a deluge of illegals coming across our border.”
Rights groups have blasted Title 42 as a violation of basic human rights. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wrote on Twitter Friday that the policy “has caused enormous harm to people seeking safety. Continuing to manipulate this public health law is beyond cruel.”
On Friday, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) condemned the court ruling. “This politically driven decision by a Trump-appointed judge will continue to deny people their legal and fundamental right to seek asylum in the United States,” Marielena Hincapié, the NILC’s executive director, said in a statement.
“The Biden administration made the right call to finally put an end to Title 42 expulsions, and we urge the administration to vigorously defend its decision in court,” Hincapié added.
Last month alone, Title 42 was used for 97,000 expulsions, with a majority of those migrants coming from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, Axios reported Friday."The Biden administration made the right call to finally put an end to Title 42 expulsions." - Marielena Hincapié, National Immigration Law Center
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Since last March, Gov. Abbott has overseen a sweeping and costly border crackdown known as Operation Lone Star, which includes the participation of the Texas Department of Public Safety and National Guard.
Earlier this month, The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler released a new poll that found some 55% of Texans approve of Abbott spending billions on the border clampdown and nearly two-thirds backed Title 42.
Speaking to The View in early May, Abbott’s main challenger in the upcoming elections, Democrat Beto O’Rourke, said that if Title 42 is lifted, he hoped “it produces more pressure on the United States, especially those in Congress, to do their job and rewrite our immigration laws."
O’Rourke added, “I do think that President Biden needs to do a better job of listening to border communities.”
