A federal judge on Tuesday struck down a Donald Trump-era policy used by U.S. border officials to quickly expel migrants because of the covid pandemic, saying the ban had little proven benefit to public health even as it shunted migrants to dangerous places.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in the District of Columbia vacated the order known as Title 42, effectively restoring asylum seekers’ access to the borders for the first time since the Trump administration issued it during the earliest days of the pandemic.
The decision — which takes effect immediately — knocks down one of the last remaining barriers to asylum from the Trump administration, advocates for immigrants said. It also poses an immediate logistical challenge for the Biden administration after two consecutive years of record apprehensions on the U.S.-Mexico border, with the possibility that the numbers could grow.
Biden officials have long worried about a mass rush to the border creating an emergency similar to the one that occurred in Del Rio, Texas, in Sept. 2021, when thousands of migrants crossed illegally and overwhelmed U.S. agents, creating a squalid camp on the banks of the Rio Grande that embarrassed the Biden administration.
Sullivan’s ruling also comes days after top border official Chris Magnus resigned under pressure after clashing with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security had no immediate response to the ruling.
The American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizations that brought the lawsuit on behalf of migrants, said Sullivan’s decision to vacate the Title 42 policy means the policy ends for all migrants, including families and adults traveling without children.
“Title 42 unfortunately had a long shelf life but has finally been ended, and that will mean enormous relief to desperate asylum seekers,” said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt.
Sullivan also made clear that that he would not stay his order pending appeal, leaving it to a higher court to do so if the Biden administration sought more time to address the ruling.
Federal officers made more than 230,600 arrests in October alone at the U.S.-Mexico border, and expelled more than 78,400 without providing a chance for them to plead their cases.
U.S. officials have carried out more than 2.4 million expulsions, mainly from the southern border, since the previous administration issued the order in March 2020. Most expulsions have been under President Biden because the number of arriving migrants has soared.
In his ruling, Sullivan sided with migrants who sued the government last year arguing that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Title 42 order was “arbitrary and capricious” in violation of federal law. Advocates said there was no evidence the policy protected public health and that the government had failed to consider alternatives that might have prevented migrants from being expelled into countries where they faced extreme danger.
Sullivan wrote that the federal officials knew the order “would likely expel migrants to locations with a ‘high probability’ of ‘persecution, torture, violent assaults, or rape’ ” — and did so anyway.
“It is unreasonable for the CDC to assume that it can ignore the consequences of any actions it chooses to take in the pursuit of fulfilling its goals,” Sullivan wrote. “It is undisputed that the impact on migrants was indeed dire.”
The Biden administration could appeal but lawyers said that is unlikely because the CDC agreed in April that the Title 42 order was unnecessary because of lower covid transmission and the availability of masks and vaccines, and tried to lift the order in May.
A federal judge in Louisiana blocked the Biden administration temporarily after Republicans in Texas and 23 other states sued, saying officials had failed to consider the impact that absorbing new migrants would have on their budgets.
U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays, a Trump appointee, said the Biden administration could terminate the Title 42 order after allowing the public to weigh in, but the CDC has not started that process and declined to say why.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in the District of Columbia vacated the order known as Title 42, effectively restoring asylum seekers’ access to the borders for the first time since the Trump administration issued it during the earliest days of the pandemic.
The decision — which takes effect immediately — knocks down one of the last remaining barriers to asylum from the Trump administration, advocates for immigrants said. It also poses an immediate logistical challenge for the Biden administration after two consecutive years of record apprehensions on the U.S.-Mexico border, with the possibility that the numbers could grow.
Biden officials have long worried about a mass rush to the border creating an emergency similar to the one that occurred in Del Rio, Texas, in Sept. 2021, when thousands of migrants crossed illegally and overwhelmed U.S. agents, creating a squalid camp on the banks of the Rio Grande that embarrassed the Biden administration.
Sullivan’s ruling also comes days after top border official Chris Magnus resigned under pressure after clashing with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security had no immediate response to the ruling.
The American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizations that brought the lawsuit on behalf of migrants, said Sullivan’s decision to vacate the Title 42 policy means the policy ends for all migrants, including families and adults traveling without children.
“Title 42 unfortunately had a long shelf life but has finally been ended, and that will mean enormous relief to desperate asylum seekers,” said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt.
Sullivan also made clear that that he would not stay his order pending appeal, leaving it to a higher court to do so if the Biden administration sought more time to address the ruling.
Federal officers made more than 230,600 arrests in October alone at the U.S.-Mexico border, and expelled more than 78,400 without providing a chance for them to plead their cases.
U.S. officials have carried out more than 2.4 million expulsions, mainly from the southern border, since the previous administration issued the order in March 2020. Most expulsions have been under President Biden because the number of arriving migrants has soared.
In his ruling, Sullivan sided with migrants who sued the government last year arguing that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Title 42 order was “arbitrary and capricious” in violation of federal law. Advocates said there was no evidence the policy protected public health and that the government had failed to consider alternatives that might have prevented migrants from being expelled into countries where they faced extreme danger.
Sullivan wrote that the federal officials knew the order “would likely expel migrants to locations with a ‘high probability’ of ‘persecution, torture, violent assaults, or rape’ ” — and did so anyway.
“It is unreasonable for the CDC to assume that it can ignore the consequences of any actions it chooses to take in the pursuit of fulfilling its goals,” Sullivan wrote. “It is undisputed that the impact on migrants was indeed dire.”
The Biden administration could appeal but lawyers said that is unlikely because the CDC agreed in April that the Title 42 order was unnecessary because of lower covid transmission and the availability of masks and vaccines, and tried to lift the order in May.
A federal judge in Louisiana blocked the Biden administration temporarily after Republicans in Texas and 23 other states sued, saying officials had failed to consider the impact that absorbing new migrants would have on their budgets.
U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays, a Trump appointee, said the Biden administration could terminate the Title 42 order after allowing the public to weigh in, but the CDC has not started that process and declined to say why.
