On Monday, Chief Justice John Roberts put a temporary halt to a lower court ruling that would end a Trump-era immigration policy that allowed asylum seekers to be quickly turned away at the border during the pandemic.
The brief order came after Republican-led states petitioned the Supreme Court to maintain the policy.
Roberts ordered that the federal district court decision, which was scheduled to take effect on Wednesday, be postponed until the Supreme Court acts. He requested that the Biden administration and groups opposing the policy response to the states’ request by Tuesday afternoon.
Following the rejection of their request to intervene in the case by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last week, nineteen states, led by Arizona and Louisiana, filed an emergency request.
“Repealing Title 42 will recklessly and needlessly endanger more Americans and migrants by exacerbating the disaster at our southern border,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a statement.
The states claim that President Joe Biden‘s administration “abandoned meaningful defence” of the rule, claiming that it effectively engineered a ruling that would end it with the help of lawyers challenging the policy. As a result, states are attempting to intervene in order to keep it in place. In its order last week, the appeals court stated that the states had waited too long before attempting to intervene.
In a separate case, a federal judge blocked the administration’s previous attempt to reverse the policy.
Title 42, named after a section of United States law, empowers the federal government to take emergency measures to keep diseases out of the country. When the coronavirus pandemic broke out, former President Donald Trump invoked it, and it has remained in effect during the Biden administration. As a result, over 2 million people have been expelled from the country.
Various civil rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, challenged the policy on behalf of those affected.
Title 42 will remain in effect under the Supreme Court’s order, according to the Department of Homeland Security, and the agency will continue to prepare”to manage the border in a safe, orderly, and humane way” if it is lifted.
“We urge Congress to use this time to provide the funds we have requested for border security and management and advance the comprehensive immigration measures President Biden proposed on his first day in office,” the department added.
