Two nearly simultaneous—and conflicting—court rulings on Friday continued to make the case for why the Biden administration must once and for all end the debunked Title 42 policy, which has used the pandemic as an excuse to override U.S. asylum law and summarily deport vulnerable people. Early that day, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the administration could not deport families “who may face persecution or torture once expelled,” organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said.
But then later that day, a federal judge appointed by the previous administration ruled in a Texas-led lawsuit that the administration can’t continue to exempt asylum-seeking children who’ve arrived without their parents from the policy. The government now has a week to appeal that ruling. “It's unconscionable to expel unaccompanied children without a chance to seek safety at our borders,” Kids in Need of Defense responded.
Organizations that had taken the Biden administration to court over the policy said that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling would allow asylum-seeking families to “breathe a momentary sigh of relief,” and urged the administration to scrap the policy altogether. Unlike the Remain in Mexico policy, there’s been no court order forcing the administration to continue Stephen Miller’s policy.
“It is shameful that the Biden administration has fought so hard to defend the Title 42 policy, and they should reverse course immediately,” Center for Gender & Refugee Studies Managing Attorney Neela Chakravartula said. ”Although today's ruling is technically limited to families, the court's reasoning makes clear that the government cannot return anyone to a country where they will face persecution or torture. It's time to end Title 42 and finally restart asylum processing at the southern border."
Ending Title 42 “is even more urgent now that the Northern District Court of Texas has made the unconscionable decision to order the Biden administration to resume the inhumane practice of expelling unaccompanied children,” senators including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said following the federal judge’s ruling that same day.
While a federal judge in November 2020 ordered the previous administration to stop quickly deporting unaccompanied children under the policy, and the Biden administration has maintained that change, Republicans have repeatedly shopped for right-wing judges who they know will aid and abet their agenda. Once again, expand the fucking courts.
"This decision, requiring the Biden administration to block unaccompanied children from seeking safety at our borders, will place thousands of children directly in harm's way," National Center for Youth Law attorney Neha Desai told CBS News. The report said that the previous administration deported nearly 16,000 kids before the November 2020 court order. "There is no public health rationale for preventing children from seeking asylum and expelling them to life-threatening dangers."
Nor other asylum-seeking people. Report after report has made clear that the supposed public health reasoning behind the policy was complete bullshit. Far back as October 2020 we knew that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scientists “said there was no evidence the action would slow the coronavirus,” but were overruled by Miller and Mike Pence.
Today, migrants who are allowed to enter the U.S. are also showing excellent vaccination rates, advocates have noted. Meanwhile, U.S. truckers are protesting imaginary mandates that “have already been rescinded or blocked in the courts on the federal level, and on the local and state levels are in the process of ending,” Daily Kos David Neiwert recently wrote. The president himself is calling on workers to get back to the office. So why in the world is COVID still being used against asylum-seekers?
“We urge the Biden administration to fulfill its early promise to restore access to asylum and end the usage of Title 42 once and for all,” Sens. Schumer, Robert Menendez, Cory Booker, and Alex Padilla said, noting the CDC “should review their current order given the progress our nation has made in its pandemic recovery.” ACLU of Texas staff attorney Shaw Drake said the “administration must uphold its promise to restore humanity to our immigration system. Step one is to end Title 42 expulsions completely.”
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