Federal Judge Immigration: Judge blocks Biden administration from lifting Title 42

A federal judge on Friday May 20, ruled that the Biden administration cannot end Title 42, a Trump-era policy which severely limits asylum seekers from entering the U.S. due to the corona virus pandemic.

The order came just weeks after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that in light of a new assessment on covid-19 restrictions by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, families and single adult asylum seekers who had been turned away at the U.S.-Mexico border will now have the opportunity to enter the U.S. and make an asylum claim starting Monday, May 23.

However, U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays of the Western District of Louisiana ruled that Biden administration officials cannot begin lifting the health order known as Title 42, which has blocked more than 1.8 million attempts to cross the border since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

The court ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by Missouri, Louisiana and Arizona in opposition to the CDC’s order lifting Title 42 restrictions.