On Thursday, a District Judge for the District of Columbia issued a national injunction ordering the Biden Administration to stop using the CDC's Title 42 to expel migrants who illegally crossed the border.
Title 42 is an effective public health order issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The title says that unauthorized border crossers heighten the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks and thus, in the name of public health, can be blocked from being "introduced" into the country.
Title 42 was first triggered by President Trump at the start of the Pandemic; despite immense pressure from open-border activists and progressive members of Congress, the Biden Administration has kept the order in place.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, a notable judicial activist, issued a 14-day stay with his order - giving the Administration that amount of time to seek intervention from a higher court. Although the Administration argued before Judge Sullivan for keeping Title 42 expulsions - continuing that legal route will be packed with political consequences from the left.
The Washington Times reports, "The judge said the expulsion powers — known as Title 42— go beyond what Congress intended. He said the challengers, including the American Civil Liberties Union, are likely to succeed in a full proceeding, so an injunction is appropriate now." Sullivan ruled:
Here, the Title 42 Process deprives Plaintiffs and the proposed class members of an opportunity to seek humanitarian protections under the asylum and withholding of removal statutes.
The open-border activists argued before Sullivan that Title 42 stood in the way of aliens entitled to protections in the U.S. Omar Jadwat - director of the ACLU's immigrant rights project, stated: "President Biden should have ended this cruel and lawless policy long ago, and the court was correct to reject it today."
Choosing not to appeal Sullivan's ruling would also be a precarious position for the Administration, as falling back on "Title 42 expulsions" seems to be their only response when pressed on the historic border surge that had grown every month since Biden's inauguration until August - which saw an approximate 2% reduction in alien encounters.
According to The Washington Times:
More than 46% of all border jumpers in August were expelled under the Title 42 powers. Of those that weren't expelled, about half were caught and released into communities.
Customs and Border Protection, data released this week about August border operations, said that while agents and officers recorded 208,887 unauthorized entries, that comprised just 156,641 unique people.
This order is all the more impactful when one considers the recent DHS Inspector General report, which found that not only is CBP not testing illegal aliens for COVID-19, but they are not even required to do so - relying instead on private charities.
For more, please visit The Washington Times.
