A federal judge has halted President Joe Biden’s plan to end Title 42, ordering federal agencies to continue the program because the termination order likely violates federal law.
The decision is a win for President Joe Biden — but is also a win for the opponents of Biden’s easy migration policy.
Biden wins because he can keep using Title 42 to manage the migrant inflow. Without Title 42, many more migrants would rush the border, forcing TV news executives to broadcast dramatic videos on the evening news. Also, he can blame the judge when his pro-migration allies want to blame someone for the Title 42 barrier.
Pro-American groups also won because they keep the last remaining curbs on the inflow of migrants invited to the U.S. border by Biden and his pro-migration border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas. Each Month, Mayorkas is pressured to exclude one-third of the new migrants into the United States.
In April, Mayorkas exempted 137,000 migrants from Title 42 and allowed them to enter the United States, out of the 235,000 who were recorded at the border. But he also allowed roughly 60,000 more migrants to sneak across the border. So just 138,000 were excluded — and many of those will try again in May because Mayorkas flies very few of them back to their distant homelands.
Mayorkas planned to stop enforcing the barrier on Monday, May 23. But the judge’s decision does not bar Mayorkas from exempting many migrants from the Title 42 barrier.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before the House Committee on Appropriations Wednesday, April 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Pro-American activists welcomed the decision.
“The Biden administration has consciously created an unprecedented surge of illegal migration with Title 42 serving as the last constraint on its plan to completely abandon enforcement of our border,” said a statement from Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
By the Department of Homeland Security’s own reckoning, their decision to cancel Title 42 would have led to at least an immediate doubling of April’s record number of illegal entries, all of whom they planned to quickly process and disperse around the country.
Judge [Robert] Summerhays’ ruling may prevent the crisis from becoming exponentially worse, but it is not a solution to the problem the Biden administration is deliberately inflicting on the American public. The ball is now in Congress’ court, which has the power to hold this rogue administration accountable for its ongoing refusal to carry out its constitutional obligation to enforce our nation’s immigration laws.
“We are gratified that the District Court has issued this Preliminary Injunction to stop the Biden Administration from rescinding Title 42 and turning our already unimaginably catastrophic border nightmare into an even more unimaginable hellscape, said Stephen Miller, founder of America First Legal., a pro-American civil rights group.
A statement from Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) said:
It’s outrageous that President Biden even considered rescinding Title 42 in the midst of a historic crisis at our southern border that’s leaving our country wide open to an influx of illegal drugs and illegal immigrants. While I’m glad to see a Trump-appointed judge block Biden’s senseless decision, the President needs to wake up, face reality and secure our southern border for the safety of Montana communities.
A federal judge just blocked another disastrous decision, but the Biden administration should not see today’s ruling as a political bail out.
The American people deserve a secure border.
I call on President Biden to fully enforce Title 42.
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) May 20, 2022
Pro-migrati0n advocates are portraying the judge’s decision as racist because most migrants are not from Europe.
“More than 1.8 million migrants have been denied entry into the U.S. under the policy, forcing many back to the dangerous conditions they were escaping,” according to Isabel Vinent, a director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition. “Title 42 was never about public health, but rather a racist cruel double standard put in place by the Trump administration.”
“Today’s court decision to block the end of Title 42 will cause immeasurable harm to thousands of vulnerable people seeking protection in the United States,” said Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the American Immigration Council, a pro-migration group with ties to immigration lawyers and business donors. “Congress must resist demands to legislate [for] the use of Title 42 in years to come.”
The case is Louisiana v. CDC, 6:22-CV-00885, was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Lousiana.
