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The U.S. Supreme Court delivered its highly-anticipated ruling on whether to keep in place the border policy known as title 42 as the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border worsens by the day.
The nation’s highest court has ruled to keep the Trump-era rule in place for now, while other legal challenges to the policy play out in other courts, Axios reported Tuesday.
“The expected Dec. 21 expiration of the policy — which has cited the pandemic to allow border officials to rapidly expel migrants and asylum seekers at the border for more than 2.5 years — was delayed after the Supreme Court intervened at the request of Republican challengers,” the outlet reported. “The Supreme Court approved a last-minute effort by 19 GOP-led states to block the termination of Title 42.”
Last week, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked an order that would lift pandemic-era restrictions on asylum seekers.
“The order Monday by Chief Justice John Roberts comes as conservative states are pushing to keep limits on asylum seekers that were put in place during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. They are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort before the limits are set to expire. In the one-page order, Roberts granted a stay pending further order and asked the government to respond by 5 p.m. Tuesday. That is just hours before the restrictions are slated to expire on Wednesday. Conservative states pushing to keep limits on asylum-seekers put in place during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort before the limits are set to expire. But with the immigration restrictions going away on Wednesday, it’s unclear if the Supreme Court will intervene. The nineteen states on Monday asked the court for an emergency stay that would keep Title 42 in place,” Yahoo reported.
“This Court’s review is warranted given the enormous national importance of this case. It is not reasonably contestable that the failure to grant a stay will cause an unprecedented calamity at the southern border,” the states wrote in their request.
Title 42 is a law giving the federal government the power to shut down the border as an emergency action. It was put in place under then-President Donald Trump in March 2020 and has prevented hundreds of thousands of migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S.
The rule was set to expire before the Supreme Court stepped in as thousands more migrants are packed in shelters on Mexico’s border with the U.S.
Trump used Title 42 in 2020 when the COVID pandemic broke out worldwide. Since it was enacted, over two million migrants have been expelled. President Joe Biden also left the rule in place.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott warned of the coming mayhem.
“If the courts don’t intervene and put a halt of removal to the Title 42 it’s going to be total chaos. It was known from the time that Joe Biden got elected that Joe Biden supported open borders. It is known by the cartels who have sophisticated information whether or not the Biden administration is going to enforce the immigration laws or not is known across the world but most importantly, known among the cartels,” Abbott said.
“Some do come across with COVID and no one knows exactly who comes across with COVID. These people are not tested when they come across the border and so who knows how many people have COVID, who knows what other type of disease they may have. The answer is nobody knows because nobody is testing them,” the governor said.
“This is very important because there are people across the globe who have a valid, solid reason to come to the United States, but they can do so legally right now. The people who have the ability to come to the United States legally get pushed further and further and further back in the line every single day with the thousands of illegal immigrants coming across the border,” Abbott said.
