A federal judge in Louisiana on Monday temporarily scuttled the Biden administration’s plans to lift a Trump-era pandemic policy at the border that allows agents to quickly expel migrants without allowing them to seek asylum. U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays stated his intention to block the rescinding of Title 42, as the policy is known, after hearing a case brought by 21 Republican-led states against the Biden administration. After Summerhays’ announcement, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt tweeted that his office had “obtained a temporary restraining order to keep Title 42 in place.” As of this month, the policy had been used by the Biden administration to deport migrants more than 1.5 million times, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had previously announced the policy’s termination by May 23, saying in early April that the increased availability of vaccines, among other disease-countering tools, had negated the need for it. In a separate case yet to be ruled upon, the state of Texas filed a suit late last week to block the Biden administration from ending Title 42.
