US Supreme Court Keeps Trump-Era Border Rules, Allowing Immigrants To Be Expelled

19 states argued the lifting of policy saying that it could lead to an increase in already record border crossings and overwhelm the resources of the state where migrants end up. 

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The US Supreme Court on Tuesday kept in place a Trump-era pandemic border restriction that allows US officials to rapidly expel undocumented migrants caught at the US-Mexico border, reported news agency Reuters. In a 5-4 vote, the court granted a request by Republican state attorneys general to put on hold a judge’s decision invalidating the emergency public health order known as Title 42. 

The report stated that 19 states argued the lifting of policy saying that it could lead to an increase in already record border crossings and overwhelm the resources of the state where migrants end up. 

The court said it will hear arguments in its February session over whether the states could intervene to defend Title 42. 

As per the report, a ruling on this is expected by the end of June. 

Until that the US government would have to enforce the order, said president Joe Biden. 

“But I think it's overdue,” he said.

Chief Justice John Roberts, a member of the court's 6-3 conservative majority, on December 19 issued a temporary administrative stay maintaining Title 42 while the court considered whether to keep the policy for longer. Prior to his order, it had been set to expire on December 21.

Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch joined with the court's liberal members - Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson - in dissenting, calling Tuesday's order "unwise."

Gorsuch questioned why the court was rushing to hear a dispute on "emergency decrees that have outlived their shelf life," adding that the only plausible reason was because the states contended Title 42 would help mitigate against an "immigration crisis."

"But the current border crisis is not a COVID crisis," Gorsuch wrote in an opinion joined by Jackson. "And courts should not be in the business of perpetuating administrative edicts designed for one emergency only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency."

Mexico's foreign ministry had no immediate comment on the court's decision.