The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed immigration policy Title 42 to remain in effect while legal challenges play out, letting federal officials continue expulsions of undocumented immigrants under the Trump-era policy.
By a 5-4 vote, the justices agreed to decide later this term on whether several Republican-led states should be allowed to intervene in defense of the policy after lower courts ruled Title 42 could come to an end. The high court order imposed by Chief Justice John Roberts keeps the border policy, which allows swift expulsions of immigrants, in place while litigation goes forward.
Notably, Justice Neil Gorsuch, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, led the dissent from the majority that was joined by the court’s most recent liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan didn’t join the dissent but voted to deny granting the case for arguments in February.
THE SUPREME COURT’S FOUR OPTIONS FOR FATE OF TITLE 42 IMMIGRATION POLICY
“The States may question whether the government followed the right administrative steps before issuing this decision (an issue on which I express no view). But they do not seriously dispute that the public-health justification undergirding the Title 42 orders has lapsed. And it is hardly obvious why we should rush in to review a ruling on a motion to intervene in a case concerning emergency decrees that have outlived their shelf life,” Gorsuch wrote.
The Tuesday afternoon decision followed Chief Justice John Roberts’s temporary administrative stay against terminating the program on Dec. 19 after 19 GOP-led states filed an emergency request to keep the policy in place.
Ahead of the subsequent ruling, the Justice Department requested the high court on Dec. 20 for a delay in the termination of the Title 42 immigration policy, asking for the program to conclude no sooner than the week after Christmas.
The Biden administration has yet to lay out any systemic changes to manage an expected surge of immigrants if the policy ends but has signaled it will rely on Title 8, which expels immigrants who don’t show a legal basis to remain in the country.
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On Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security maintained, “Anyone attempting to enter without authorization is subject to expulsion under Title 42,” regardless of an immigrant’s nationality.
First enacted in March 2020 as a means to reject immigrants quickly due to the pandemic, Title 42 has deterred nearly 2.5 million immigrants amid a historic influx of border crossings under the Biden administration.
