A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the public health rule known as Title 42, which since 2020 and under the pretext of the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed the United States to expel some 2.4 million migrants who crossed the southern border to Mexico.
The rule was implemented by former President Donald Trump at the beginning of the health emergency and has remained in force during the Joe Biden Administration, who has also relied on it to stop the growing wave of immigration.
Washington, DC district judge Emmet Sullivan said in his ruling Tuesday that the Title 42 rule is "arbitrary and capricious" and "violates" the law.
His decision takes immediate effect.
A border patrol agent talks to a group of migrants before processing them after crossing the US-Mexico border, taken in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on November 11, 2022.AFP via Getty Images
His ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which alleges that Title 42 puts migrants in a dangerous situation on the Mexican side and violates US asylum law.
The judge's decision not only demolishes one of the last remaining barriers to immigration imposed by Trump, but also challenges the Biden Administration at a time when record arrests of undocumented migrants are being recorded.
In October alone there were 230,000 arrests at the US-Mexico border, with more than 78,400 expulsions from US territory, according to figures from border authorities.
The Biden Administration had announced that it would eliminate Title 42 effective May 23, but another federal judge ruled that it should remain in effect.