The United States Supreme Court blocked this Monday the imminent lifting of a health regulation invoked to expel migrants at the border with Mexico.
The president of the court, John Roberts, signed an order that suspends the uprising, scheduled for this Wednesday, and therefore maintains the call Title 42which allowed the authorities use anti-covid-19 protocols to prevent the entry of millions of migrants.
Roberts temporarily blocked this measure inherited from the administration of the Republican president Donald Trumpwho has continued to apply Biden’s.
It did so in response to a last-minute request by 20 states arguing that ending the Title 42 it would cause an avalanche of migrants that would overwhelm its services.
They cite the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as predicting that border crossings by migrants, most of whom are seeking asylum, could triple to 18,000 per day.
This increase “will increase the states’ costs of law enforcement, education and health care,” the complainants argued.
DHS reacted to the court ruling by stating that “the Title 42 will remain in effect at this time and people who attempt to enter the United States illegally will continue to be removed to Mexico.”
Last Friday, a Washington appeals court ruled that there is no justification for maintaining the Title 42which was applied in March 2020 in an attempt to curb the pandemic of the COVID-19.
In their petition, the states ask that the Supreme Court take up the case.
Roberts gave the parties 24 hours to respond, so the Biden administration will have to rule.
This still leaves open the possibility of Title 42 being suspended this week. The court may also decide to keep it while it reviews the case.
The Joe Biden administration accepted a November ruling from a lower court ordering it to suspend the Title 42 and that, at his request, he gave him until December 21 to lift it.
According to activists and human rights experts, the Title 42 violates international law.
They consider it “inhumane” to prevent someone from applying for asylum and assure that it encourages migrants to risk their lives. A total of 557 deaths were recorded on the border with Mexico in 2021, the deadliest year since statistics began in 1998.
Preparations
Last week, the White House said that the Department of Homeland Security was prepared to deal with the expected increase in migrants.
“We have an intensive government-wide effort underway to be prepared,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre anticipated.
DHS said in a statement that Title 42 will remain in effect as a result of the high court’s order, and that “individuals attempting to enter the United States illegally will continue to be removed to Mexico.”
As the litigation continues, “we will continue our preparations to manage the border in a safe, orderly, and humane manner when the Title 42 order is lifted,” the department said.
Conservative lawmakers were quick to praise the ruling, with some urging that the Title 42 become law of the United States. The top Republican in the House, Kevin McCarthy, said he was “glad to see the Supreme Court injected a bit of sanity into the situation.”
The DHS, which believes it has “inherited a broken and dismantled immigration system,” has updated a series of measures announced in April.
The Customs and Border Protection Office requested in the fiscal year 2023 budget the hiring of 300 agents that will be added to the 23,000 deployed on the border with Mexico.
The Biden administration has also hired nearly 1,000 border patrol processing coordinators and added 2,500 contractors and staff from other agencies to assist agents on the ground.
It also claims to have increased watchtowers, approved the closure of more than 120 “gaps” along the border and doubled the means to transport migrants, in addition to creating 10 facilities to increase “holding” capacity.
“This includes hundreds of flights and bus routes per week to transport” intercepted migrants “to less crowded sectors” for processing, expulsion or repatriation to their country of origin or to third countries, the update states.
As the litigation continues, “we will continue our preparations to manage the border in a safe, orderly, and humane manner when the Title 42 public health order is lifted,” the DHS said in a statement Monday.
And he urges Congress to take advantage of “this time to provide the funds” for border security and management and to “advance the immigration measures” proposed by the president.
And it is that Biden proposed, among other measures, a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants in a country that has not had a law of this type for 35 years, but it was never voted on.
This and other proposals have always met with the opposition of the Senate, where it had, and will have as of January, a slim majority.
(With information from AFP)