A federal judge has blocked the Biden administration’s attempt to repeal previously enacted immigration policy.
According to KOB 4 News in Albuquerque, the Trump administration enacted the Title 42 policy in response to migrants crossing the border during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden administration has been pushing to revoke the measure, which was blocked by a federal judge May 20.
New Mexico Immigration attorneys say that many migrants are unable to apply for asylum in the United States due to their inability to access immigration courts.
President Joe Biden.
| whitehouse.gov
“It’s putting families in precarious situations,” Sophia Genovese, a senior attorney at the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, told KOB 4. “They’re forced to decide, ‘Do I cross through the desert and risk our lives or do we continue to remain in danger in shelters or in camps in Mexico?'”
Some attorneys told KOB 4 the matter will head to court over the next several months. Opponents of Title 42 will work to abolish it while the other side is suing the Biden administration for not following proper protocol to repeal it.
Some supporters of Title 42 believe that lifting the measure will put too much pressure on the health care system.
“The federal government has the ability to vaccinate 6,000 aliens a day, but up to 18,000 may cross the border per day when Title 42 is lifted,” said Scott St. John, the deputy solicitor general in the Office of Louisiana’s Attorney General, as reported by KOB 4. “The Department of Justice argued it’s not based on whether or not we can screen or vaccinate, the health care system can handle it.”
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol reports that nearly 100,000 migrants were expelled under Title 42 in April alone, according to KOB 4.
