A federal judge in D.C. blocked the Biden administration from using Title 42, a Trump-era emergency health order, to expel migrants from the United States.
As CNSNews.com previously reported, the Biden administration had been using Title 42 in recent weeks to stop Venezuelans from entering the United States, announcing through the Department of Homeland Security, “Effective immediately, Venezuelans who enter the United States between ports of entry, without authorization, will be returned to Mexico.”
Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., called the use of Title 42 “arbitrary and capricious,” and a violation of the law because it was not implemented properly, the Texas Tribune reported Tuesday.
“It is unreasonable for the CDC to assume that it can ignore the consequences of any actions it chooses to take in the pursuit of fulfilling its goals, particularly when those actions included the extraordinary decision to suspend the codified procedural and substantive rights of noncitizens seeking safe harbor,” Sullivan wrote in his opinion.
In response to the court’s ruling, DHS announced Tuesday that “the United States will continue to fully enforce our immigration laws at our border.” The Justice Department “is filing an unopposed stay motion,” DHS said in a statement on its website.
“The delay in implementation of the court’s order will allow the government to prepare for an orderly transition to new policies at the border. But to be clear, under the unopposed motion, Title 42 would remain in place for some period. During the period of this freeze, we will prepare for an orderly transition to new policies at the border,” the statement read.
“We know that smugglers will lie to try to take advantage of vulnerable migrants, putting lives at risk. We continue to work with countries throughout the Western Hemisphere to take enforcement actions against the smuggling networks that entice migrants to take the dangerous and often deadly journey to our land borders and to address the root causes of irregular migration that are challenging our hemisphere as a whole,” DHS added.
By MELANIE ARTER for CNS News
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