Supreme Court drops Title 42 case
Move potentially clears the way for the policy to end May 11
WASHINGTON (KYMA, KECY) - The Supreme Court of the United States has dropped the Title 42 case from its calendar.
The move follows a recent message from lawyers from President Biden's Department of Justice, telling the Supreme Court the case would be moot as the administration is ending the COVID health emergency on May 11.
No official statement on the case's status has come yet from the Supreme Court.
Title 42 is a health policy that has been used at the border over two million times since 2020, expelling migrants from countries like Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala, then recently Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Haiti.
The recent expansion has led to a 66% decrease in Yuma border crossings.
Immigration policy experts say Title 42, and the public health emergency originally declared by President Trump, are tied to one another.
“The expiration date of the public health emergency on May 11, it seems to be more of an air-tight date for it to be terminated than any in the past. The policy expires automatically when the public health emergency goes away,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick with the American Immigration Council told KYMA, following the Biden Administration's announcement.
The Biden Administration tried to end Title 42 twice, in May and December of 2022.
Now the path to the policy ending on May 11, 2023, seems clearer, and the Biden Administration themselves say there will be a surge of migrants at the border once it ends.
Reichlin-Melnick says with the two previous end dates being extended, it's unlikely, but still possible for the new May 11 end date to be postponed.
“They want the public health emergency to expire, but in so doing Title 42 goes away. How they’re going to thread that needle remains uncertain but we can be sure they’re going to try,” Reichlin-Melnick said.
