A federal judge has overruled Democrat President Joe Biden and blocked his administration from ending the successful Trump-era Title 42 border policy.
U.S. Judge Robert Summerhays blocked Biden’s CDC from ending Title 42 as planned on Monday, May 23.
The border policy has enabled border authorities to quickly expel illegal immigrants at the southern U.S. border back to Mexico.
The measure uses public health grounds and was implemented amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a 47-page ruling on Friday, Judge Robert Summerhays in Louisiana granted a nationwide injunction to block the termination of Title 42.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) move to terminate the policy didn’t comply with the Administrative Procedure Act that requires public notice and time to gather public comment on the plan, Judge Summerhays ruled.
“Simply put, the CDC has not explained how the present circumstances prevented the CDC from issuing the Termination Order through the required notice and comment process under the [Administrative Procedure Act],” Summerhays wrote.
The notice and comment process can potentially take months to complete.
“Given the impact of the Termination Order on the Plaintiff States and their showing that the CDC did not comply with the [Administrative Procedure Act], the Court concludes that the public interest would be served by a preliminary injunction preventing the termination of the CDC’s Title 42 Orders,” the ruling reads.
Read the full ruling here.
BREAKING — U.S. Judge Robert Summerhays grants a preliminary injunction to block the Biden administration from ending the mass expulsions of migrants under the Title 42 pandemic-era rule.
The CDC had planned to stop authorizing Title 42 on Monday, May 23. pic.twitter.com/vOysEJGrKk
— Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) May 20, 2022
STORY: The CDC cannot move forward with a plan to discontinue pandemic-related emergency rules that allow U.S. border agents to rapidly expel migrants to Mexico or their home countries on public health grounds, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled Friday.https://t.co/UzergRQZbL
— Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) May 20, 2022
The ruling means the CDC is blocked from terminating Title 42, and the policy will remain in place amid ongoing litigation until a final decision is made on the merits of the case.
The full trial is likely to take many months.
Since Title 42’s implementation in March 2020 under the Trump administration, border agents have been able to turn illegal immigrants away from the southern U.S. border over 1.9 million times without giving them a chance to seek asylum.
In April, border agents encountered more than 234,000 attempts by migrants to cross the southern border, marking a new monthly record, according to the latest data from the DHS.
The CDC had announced on April 1 that it would end the emergency border powers on May 23, citing declining cases of COVID-19 and increased availability of vaccines and therapeutics.
Prior to the CDC’s announcement, White House director of communications Kate Bedingfield said that ending Title 42 would result in an expected “influx of people to the border.”
The CDC decision prompted 24 states, led by the attorneys general of Arizona, Louisiana, and Missouri, to file a lawsuit on April 4, seeking an injunction to keep the policy in place.
The states, all with Republican attorneys general, argued in part that the termination of Title 42 would “induce a significant increase of illegal immigration into the United States, with many migrants asserting non-meritorious asylum claims.”
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich on Twitter called the ruling by Summerhays a “great win.”
