The Supreme Court has ruled on keeping Title 42, the controversial immigration policy started by the Trump administration, in place.
The policy will continue to allow the US to turn away asylum seekers at the border, Business Insider reported.
Title 42 was established during the pandemic. And as the time for it to expire neared, Republican-led states filed an emergency motion requesting the Supreme Court keep it alive. Their efforts prompted Chief Justice John Roberts to halt it temporarily, and now, Tuesday’s 5-4 ruling is an extension of that pause.
The court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the issue in February. The policy will stay enacted until a decision is made, possibly until June.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, sided with three liberal justices opposing the request. In his dissenting opinion, he argued that the court’s decisions were “unwise.”
“But the current border crisis is not a COVID crisis,” Gorsuch, joined by liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote. “And courts should not be in the business of perpetuating administrative edicts designed for one emergency only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency.”
“We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort,” he added.
Tuesday’s decision was a blow to immigration advocates who fought to get rid of the policy that allows US officials to expel asylum seekers at the southern border based on public health concerns.
As a result, over 2 million people have been expelled from the US since the policy was enacted.
“The Supreme Court has allowed Title 42 to remain in place temporarily while the case is ongoing, and we continue to challenge this horrific policy that has caused so much harm to asylum seekers and cannot plausibly be justified any longer as a public health measure,” said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.
Immigration advocates filed a lawsuit suing to terminate the policy, arguing that it has not only denied migrants the right to seek asylum in the country but has also left them in dangerous situations at the border.
They claim that Title 42 is being used as an immigration tool and that the public health concern it once relied on is no longer an issue.
A federal judge agreed with the advocates and ruled that the restrictions were “arbitrary and capricious” and ordered the Biden administration to end the policy by or on December 21.
The Biden administration agreed.
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