DC Circuit Court suspended a Federal Judge order and allowed expelling Migrant Families

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An appeals court has halted the order of a federal judge that would have barred the Biden administration from using a pandemic-era border policy to expel migrant families with little to no due process. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals suspended the order of a federal judge that would have required the Biden administration to process all migrant families with children under US immigration laws. It could allow them to seek asylum or other forms of humanitarian refuge. At the center of the court case is a public health authority, colloquially known as Title 42, which US border officials have used to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants without court hearings or asylum screenings since March 2020, when the Trump administration enacted the policy.

The Biden administration has strongly defended the emergency Trump-era policy and argued it is needed to avert coronavirus outbreaks inside migrant holding facilities. The administration has not been using Title 42 to expel unaccompanied migrant children, unlike the Trump administration. The US authorities along the southern border have used Title 42 to expel most single adult migrants during President Biden’s tenure. However, they have been expelling smaller percentages of families than in the Trump administration, largely due to Mexico’s reluctance to accept young, non-Mexican children. Point to be noted that US border officials encountered 86,000 migrant parents and children traveling as families in August. Customs and Border Protection data shows around 80% of them were processed under immigration law and allowed to seek US refuge. But the rest were expelled under Title 42.

U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan has found multiple times that the 19th-century public health law cited by the government doesn’t authorize the rapid expulsion of migrants and asylum-seekers. Sullivan ordered the government on September 16, to stop expelling migrant parents and children traveling as families but paused the order for 14 days. On Thursday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a Biden administration request to pause Sullivan’s order while it reviews the government’s appeal. Point to be noted that the US carried out 50 deportation flights to Haiti on Thursday, expelling 5,400 migrants in just 11 days. The American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Lee Gelernt filed a lawsuit against the Title 42 expulsions. He said, “It is just an initial step in the appellate litigation. Nothing stops the Biden administration from immediately repealing this horrific Trump-era policy”.