The White House promises to comply with a Supreme Court order to keep Title 42 in place, but it blames congressional Republicans for chaos at the southern border, where thousands of migrants have amassed to await the court decision.
President Joe Biden and his officials will “manage the border in a secure, orderly, and humane way” when Title 42, invoked by former President Donald Trump to speed up expulsions of migrant men during the pandemic, “eventually lifts,” says press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. She and her colleagues are exploring “expanding legal pathways for immigration,” she said.
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“Title 42 is a public health measure, not an immigration enforcement measure, and it should not be extended indefinitely,” Jean-Pierre wrote Tuesday in a statement. “To truly fix our broken immigration system, we need Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform measures like the ones President Biden proposed on his first day in office.”
She added: “Today’s order gives Republicans in Congress plenty of time to move past political finger-pointing and join their Democratic colleagues in solving the challenge at our border by passing the comprehensive reform measures and delivering the additional funds for border security that President Biden has requested.”
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The Supreme Court ordered Tuesday, through a 5-4 ruling with Justice Neil Gorsuch aligning with his more liberal colleagues in dissent, to retain Title 42 before it decides later this term whether 19 conservative-leaning states can defend the policy in the lower courts.
Thousands of immigrants have gathered at the southern border, where conditions are getting worse, in the hope Title 42 will be rolled back so they can apply for asylum and stay in the United States pending an immigration court hearing.
