Immigrants will line up outside the Office of the National Institute of Immigration (INM) while waiting for the QR code to register the migration status and travel nationwide on February 2, 2022 in Tapachula, Mexico.
Jose Torres | Reuters
Pandemic-related restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the southern border must continue, the judge ruled on Friday in an order blocking the Biden administration’s plans to dismiss them early next week.
This ruling is just the latest case of a court that upset the president’s proposed immigration policy along the US-Mexico border.
The administration can appeal, but the ruling greatly increases the likelihood that the restrictions will not end as planned on Monday. Delays are a blow to supporters who claim their right to asylum is trampled, and some fear to put them on the defensive in the year of the midterm elections, when the widespread and expected increase in illegal crossroads is already difficult. Relief for Democrats.
Immigrants have been banished more than 1.9 million times under Title 42 since March 2020. This is a public health provision that denies the opportunity to demand asylum under US law and international treaties in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Robert Summerhays, U.S. District Judge in Lafayette, Louisiana, to maintain restrictions while proceedings in court, led by Arizona and Louisiana, and currently involving 22 other states. I ordered.
The state argued that the government did not properly consider the impact of lifting restrictions on public health and law enforcement. Drew Ensign, an Arizona lawyer, claimed at a hearing that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not follow administrative procedures that required time to collect public notices and public comments.
Jean Lin, a lawyer at the Justice Department, told judges that the CDC was empowered to lift urgent health restrictions that it felt no longer needed. She said the order was not an immigration issue, but a health policy issue.
Summerhays, appointed by President Donald Trump, had already ruled in favor of the state by quitting efforts to stop using the rules of the pandemic era. He said last month that the phasing out would saddle the state with “irreparable costs for medical care, law enforcement, detention, education, and other services.”
Title 42 is the second major Trump era policy to prevent asylum at the Mexican border abandoned by President Joe Biden and was revived only by a judge appointed by Trump.
Last month, the US Supreme Court heard a debate over whether the administration would allow asylum seekers to wait in Mexico to await a hearing in the US Immigration Court. In that case, disputing the policy known as “staying in Mexico” began in Amarillo, Texas. It will be revived in December at the order of the judge and will remain in effect while the proceedings are in progress.
