On Tuesday, a federal judge issued an order preventing federal authorities from using Title 42, a Trump-era rule that allowed the U.S. to quickly expel migrants who crossed the border.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan called the policy “arbitrary and capricious” and claimed in his ruling that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act.
Title 42 was enacted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and gave authorities permission to quickly expel migrants on grounds of public health. This authority was used by the Trump administration to expel more than 185,000 migrants in fiscal year 2020, while the Biden administration expelled 937,000 migrants in 2021 and 983,000 migrants in 2022, using Title 42, according to Customs and Border Protection data.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously announced that the order would expire at the end of May, but a federal judge in Louisiana temporarily blocked the Biden administration from ending it in response to a lawsuit by two dozen Republican-led states.
The order from Sullivan comes as record numbers of migrants stream across the southern border with nearly 2.4 million encounters in fiscal year 2022, which ended in September. The ending of Title 42 will only further exacerbate the border crisis, Republicans claim.
“This will further signal to cartels, human smugglers, & illegal immigrants that the border is wide open—inciting more violence & lawlessness,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, Abbott announced that he was invoking the Invasion Clauses of the U.S. and Texas Constitutions to make further efforts to stop the crisis.
“I invoked the Invasion Clauses of the U.S. & Texas Constitutions to fully authorize Texas to take unprecedented measures to defend our state against an invasion,” Abbott said in a tweet. “I’m using that constitutional authority, & other authorization & Executive Orders to keep our state & country safe.”
The ruling comes as the Biden administration has made efforts to slow the excessive border crossings, announcing a new initiative last month to use Title 42 to expel Venezuelan nationals back to Mexico.
A government source also alleges that former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus left his position on Sunday after being told to resign or be fired by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
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