McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Chief Justice John Roberts issued a stay Monday afternoon preventing Title 42 from being lifted later this week. The high court also asked the Biden administration to respond to an application Texas, along with 18 other states, filed requesting the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene to keep Title 42 along the Southwest border past Wednesday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Friday denied a motion to intervene, leading the coalition of states to now petition the Supreme Court to stay the district court’s ruling and stop the scheduled termination of Title 42 on December 21.
In a 51-page brief filed Monday, the states cited that “DHS estimates that daily illegal crossings may more than double from around 7,000/day to 15,000/day once Title 42 is terminated.”
In signaling that the court wants to act quickly, on Monday Roberts asked the Biden administration to respond by 5 p.m. ET Tuesday.
The states say the Department of Homeland Security is asking for $3.4 billion in emergency funding “to attempt to handle this crisis,” which is, according to the states, further proof that the crisis is massive and will only be compounded by the removal of Title 42.
The states joining in the petition include:
- Arizona
- Louisiana
- Missouri
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Mississippi
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Utah
- Virginia
- West Virginia
- Wyoming
“The termination of the Title 42 System will cause the States irreparable harm,” the states argue. “[F]ailure to grant a stay here will inflict massive irreparable harms on the States, particularly as the States ‘bear many of the consequences of unlawful immigration.”
A federal judge has ordered Title 42 end on Wednesday. This is the public health rule imposed during the Trump administration in March 2020 allowing the automatic expulsion of undocumented migrants who enter the U.S. border illegally in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The states claim there have been ” a surge of migrants approaching the border in anticipation of the December 21 stay expiration.”
