Washington, DC – Late yesterday, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled that Title 42 violated the law, holding that the policy was “arbitrary and capricious.” This morning, Judge Sullivan granted the Biden administration’s request to stay the ruling for five weeks, meaning that the federal government has until December 21 to end Title 42 – a public health measure used as a pretext by Stephen Miller to restrict asylum and ruled as unnecessary by the CDC.
The following is a statement from Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“Keeping Title 42 in place has perpetuated the cruel legacy of the Trump Administration and made border enforcement much more difficult and chaotic. It’s only fitting that Judge Sullivan’s important ruling came on the same day that Donald Trump announced another run for office and only a week after the American people largely rejected the extremist vision of Stephen Miller’s approach to the border and immigration, the tens of millions he spent on ugly nativism, and many of the GOP candidates who took an extreme position on immigration in the midterms.
Title 42 has never been about public health or safety. Instead, it was a central front in the Trump/Miller war on immigrants and was used as a pretext to trample on America’s proud tradition of offering safety to migrants fleeing oppression, violence and death by offering them a legal process by which they can ask for asylum. Even as a border control measure, Title 42 has failed, helped drive up border apprehension statistics and forced the flow of asylum seekers away from our border ports of entry. It also has been a humanitarian disaster, evicting many of those seeking safety back to danger without allowing them to even seek asylum.
This is an opportunity for a reset for the Biden administration to enact a functional, orderly and humane set of policies that upholds and advances our values and laws. The U.S. must recognize that the complicated dynamics that lead to forced migration do not begin or end and cannot only be addressed at the U.S. southern border nor solely through deterrence-focused policy.
Now it is also the time for the President and Democrats to reaffirm their vision for immigration, border management, regional cooperation, asylum and refugees. The American people are clearly uncomfortable with the Trump and Miller approach that dominated GOP messaging during the midterms, and now there is a renewed opening for action.”
