On Monday, 15 states asked a federal judge to keep Title 42 in place, a COVID-19-era policy which allows Border Patrol agents to quickly expel immigrants from crossing the border into the U.S.
Last week, as Julio covered, Title 42 was given an expiration date of Dec. 21. The 15 states that asked the judge to keep the policy in place said that lifting Title 42 it will “directly harm” the states and “impose financial burdens” on them.
“The States have sovereign and quasi-sovereign interests in controlling their borders, limiting the persons present within those borders, excluding persons carrying communicable diseases, and the enforcement of immigration law,” the filing said, according to CNBC.
“Wherever those aliens end up, they will impose financial burdens on the states involuntarily hosting them,” it added. It was filed by the attorneys general of Arizona, Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Julio pointed out in his report that U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan granted the Biden administration’s request for five more weeks until U.S. Customs and Border Protections quits enforcement of Title 42. Reportedly, Sullivan sided with immigration advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, that Title 42 was being utilized to enforce border security more than as a public health precaution.
In his ruling, CNBC noted, Sullivan cited the Administrative Procedures Act and described Title 42 as “arbitrary and capricious.”
Title 42 took effect during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic under President Donald Trump. The Biden administration kept the policy in place and attempted to end it earlier this year. A federal judge kept it in place.
As Julio mentioned, some shelter directors near the U.S.-Mexico border are concerned about the impact lifting Title 42 will have on their communities. Many shelters are already at capacity with Title 42 in place. And, states like Texas and Florida have sent migrants to “sanctuary cities” to help share the burden of the border crisis.