Judge Blocks Biden Administration From Ending Title 42

A federal judge on Friday blocked the Biden administration from ending Title 42, a Trump-era border policy, days before it was scheduled to lapse.

U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays of the Western District of Louisiana granted a request for a preliminary injunction made by the attorneys general of over 20 states on Friday, according to Fox News. The attorneys general sued the federal government over its plans to end Title 42, claiming the Biden administration had violated federal rules in killing the health policy.

Title 42 is a health policy that has been in place since March 2020 and authorizes Border Patrol agents to reject migrants at the border and turn them back without processing their asylum claims. The policy was used nearly 100,000 times in April alone to turn away migrants during a record-setting month for migrant encounters at the U.S. southern border.

Critics say that scrapping the health policy will lead to a flood of immigration that the administration is not equipped to handle. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has disputed questions of the federal government’s readiness, but he has acknowledged that the department expects a jump in immigration after the rule is ended.