May 23, 2022 |
Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon welcomed a federal judge’s decision to halt President Joe Biden’s plan to end Title 42. The rule, enacted under former President Donald Trump, allowed illegal border crossers to be returned immediately because of public health concerns.
The Biden administration announced months ago that Title 42 would end today, May 23rd.
On Friday, a federal district court judge in the Western District of Louisiana, responding lawsuit by 24 Republican governors, granted a preliminary injunction. In his decision, Judge Robert Summerhays ruled that that the Biden administration’s plan to end the rule likely violates Federal law.
Governor Gordon said in a statement, “It is a shame that our coalition of 24 states had to go to court to argue that our nation needs to secure our border. This ruling recognizes that all states are impacted by the Biden administration’s failed border policies, and that the sovereignty of our country is at risk. This is a win for common sense and the rule of law.”
The injunction is a mixed bag. While the decision is a win for opponents of the Biden’s immigration policies, it also gives the White House a scapegoat when open border proponents want to blame someone for the Title 42 barrier.
The court’s decision also allows the White House to keep using Title 42 to manage the migrant inflow, largely through exemptions. In April alone, Biden and his pro-migration border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas exempted over half the 235,000 who were recorded at the border from Title 42 and allowed them to enter the United States. According to federal number, 137,000 were granted an exemption from Title 42 last month. At least another 60,000 illegal entrants snuck across the border.
Mayorkas planned to stop enforcing the barrier today, May 23rd. But the judge’s decision does not bar Mayorkas from exempting many migrants from the Title 42 barrier.
Whether the injunction stands or not will be tested on appeal. Whether Title 42 ends or not, migrants say they are tired of waiting and surged across the Rio Grande into the Eagle Pass, Texas, area of operations. According to reports based on sources with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, as many as 3,600 crossed the border illegally over the weekend — eclipsing last weekend’s total of just over 2,800 migrant apprehensions in the Del Rio Sector. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas told Fox News Sunday that the border looks a “war zone every night.”
The Biden administration will appeal a ruling by a federal judge that temporarily stopped the roll back of Title 42, according to a statement from the White House released Friday.
Friday’s ruling granting the injunction came in the case Louisiana v. Centers for Disease Control, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Louisiana.
