Red states ask the Supreme Court to stop the end of Title 42

The 19 states governed by the Republican Party that demand that the courts force the Government of Joe Biden to maintain Title 42 appealed this Monday before the Supreme Court to try to have this measure, which allows the majority of applicants to be expelled at the border from asylum under the cover of the coronavirus pandemic, continue past your deadline of Wednesday, December 21.

The rule was activated by former President Donald Trump in March 2020, and Biden maintained it after his arrival at the White House in January 2021 despite pressure from within the Democratic Party, and despite the fact that the CDC determined in April that it no longer it was necessary to stop the coronavirus thanks to the advancement of vaccines.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) went to court to demand an end to Title 42, alleging that it puts migrants in danger across the border and violates US asylum law.

Emmet Sullivan, district judge of Washington, DC, agreed with him on November 15 and ordered the Government to end Title 42, giving him until December 21.

A group of 19 red states (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming) appealed the Judge Sullivan's decision before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, which last Friday denied the appeal and upheld the judge's initial order that Title 42 must end on December 21.

The 19 states have now turned to the Supreme Court, asking it to

of the termination of Title 42, citing "the enormous damages that would otherwise be inflicted on the states," and taking into account, in their view , that "there is not the slightest indication that the Department of Homeland Security can meaningfully remedy those damages after they have occurred." 

They also ask the Supreme Court to resolve the question of whether the States have jurisdiction to challenge in court decisions and policies of the federal government that affect their territories and populations.

Migrants walk past a barbed wire fence to be detained by Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande into the US at Eagle Pass, Texas, in May 2022. Dario Lopez-Mills / AP

Since March 2020, when Trump approved it at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Title 42 has allowed the government to turn away 2.5 million migrants (although some were able to try more than once) at the border due to the risk that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assume for the spread of the disease.

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Another policy that heavily affects asylum seekers is also being debated in court: the program known as

, which Joe Biden has been trying to deactivate since his arrival at the White House in January 2021. A federal judge ruled Thursday that the federal government cannot yet end the immigration program launched in 2019 by former President Donald Trump to return asylum seekers to the neighboring country until their cases are resolved.