Judge blocks Title 42 limits at border

A federal judge has blocked the use of Title 42, a Trump-era policy used to expel more than 1 million migrants at the nation's Southern border.

U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan said Tuesday the order was “arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act,” arguing that the policy hasn’t been updated to align with the present state of the pandemic, which includes widely available vaccines, treatments and an increase in travel in the United States.

Sullivan’s 49-page opinion says his decision precludes families from being deported based on the Title 42 policy, which sought to exclude many migrants because they could be infected with coronavirus. However, a two-page order the judge also issued Tuesday seems to sweep more broadly, voiding “all orders and decision memos issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suspending the right to introduce certain persons into the United States.”

Spokespeople for the White House and the Justice Department had no immediate comment on the ruling or whether the administration would appeal the decision from Sullivan, a Washington-based appointee of President Bill Clinton.

The pandemic-related health order tied to longstanding quarantine powers dating from the 1940s was implemented during the Trump administration, but the Biden administration has continued to expand the policy, most recently using it to expel Venezuelan migrants crossing the border illegally as part of its new humanitarian parole program for them.

Both administrations seem to have relied on the health-related authority to limit flows of migrants for reasons having little to do with the spread of disease. However, in May of this year the Biden administration was set to lift the restrictions, only to be stymied by a Louisiana-based federal judge acting on a lawsuit brought by 24 Republican-led states.

U.S. District Judge Robert R. Summerhays, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, blocked the Biden administration’s move to lift Title 42, a decision the Department of Justice appealed.

As POLITICO reported this spring, Summerhays’ ruling was met with a sigh of relief inside the White House. The Southern border continues to be a challenge for the Biden administration, as concerns remain about the nation’s immigration system and whether it could handle the influx of migrants upon the end of Title 42.

But the continued use of the policy has been a tension point between the White House and immigrant advocates, who have accused the Biden administration of continuing to employ the Trump playbook.

During the 2020 campaign, President Joe Biden promised to build a “fair and humane” immigration system, vowing to put an end to Trump-era deportation policies such as Title 42.