Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court has halted a lower court's decision that would have removed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC’s) Title 42 public health authority on the border between Mexico and the United States. This authority was employed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants.
A federal judge overturned Title 42, the CDC authority that was introduced by former President Donald Trump in 2020. The authority permitted Border Patrol agents to quickly return illegal immigrants back to their homelands after arrival at the border.
Instead of appealing the decision, the Biden administration sought five weeks to terminate Title 42, ensuring that the authority would end on December 21. Although Biden's Department of Justice (DOJ) is challenging the decision, they're not trying to preserve Title 42.
This past Monday, Republican attorney generals from 19 states pleaded with the Supreme Court to preserve Title 42 by imposing a stay on the lower court's ruling. Roberts announced later that an administrative stay had been granted, allowing Title 42 to stay in place while the DOJ prepares its brief.
The stay means that enforcement under Title 42 could remain in force at the border while the matter is being argued before federal courts.
Thousands of people have been waiting at the U.S. border with Mexico to make their way across as soon as Title 42 expired. As part of the strategy to tackle the record-breaking number of illegal immigrants, El Paso, Texas, officials had requested that President Joe Biden establish Fort Bliss as a migration intake center.
With or without Title 42, Biden officials earlier admitted that up to half a million border crossers and illegal immigrants, which is equivalent to the population of Atlanta, Georgia, could cross the border each month.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) spoke to Breitbart News in April, saying that he expects 30,000 border-crossers and illegal immigrants to enter the country every day once Title 42 ends. For Tijuana, Mexico, alone several months ago, as many as 6,000 foreign nationals were waiting to get across the border when Title 42 ended.
The case before the Supreme Court of the United States is Arizona v. Mayorkas, No. 22A544.
