WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2022) A US federal judge blocked the Biden administration's plans to lift a Trump-era health policy rule, formally known as Title 42, that has helped mitigate the surge of illegal immigrants arriving through the US border with Mexico, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement.
The Biden administration said it planned to end Title 42 on Monday. The rule allows US border authorities to immediately reject the entry and stay of illegal immigrants on the basis of posing a potential threat to public health and expel them out of the United States.
"Federal Court stops Biden from ending Title 42," Abbott said on Friday. "The court granted a nationwide injunction to keep Title 42 in place."
US Judge Robert Summerhays said the Biden administration did not appear to challenge the states' entry of a nation-wide preliminary injunction.
Summerhays noted that a brief filed in this case on behalf of migrant asylum applicants in Mexico requested the injunction only apply to the 24 US states seeking to block it. However, the judge ruled that a partial injunction would only shift border crossings to other US states.
Summerhays added that the nationwide injunction will avoid further complicating the Department of Homeland Security's operations and provides uniformity in immigration enforcement.
US Customs and Border Protection said earlier this week that it made some 234,088 apprehensions of undocumented migrants on the US southern border in April, setting the Biden administration on a trend to reach a second consecutive all-time high yearly record for the number of illegal migrants crossing the US-Mexico border.
Roughly 1.3 million illegal immigrants have been apprehended on the US southern border this fiscal year, CBP data shows. Last fiscal year, 1.7 million illegal migrants were apprehended and the outcome has been widely blamed on President Joe Biden's lax immigration policy.
