A Texas federal judge ruled Friday against the Biden administration’s decision to release unaccompanied children an order from the Trump era which U.S. border agents have used to quickly expel hundreds of thousands of migrants during the coronavirus pandemic.
Accepting a request from Republican officials in Texas, District Court Judge Mark Pittman banned the Biden administration from exempting migrant children traveling without their parents from the expulsion policy of the Texas era. the pandemic, known as Title 42, a section of the U.S. Public Health Code. .
Pittman’s Friday sentencing, which was named by former President Donald Trump in 2019, is the latest judicial victory for the Texas Republican government, which has filed numerous lawsuits since President Biden took office to obstruct policies. of immigration and borders of its administration.
Texas has already blocked the Biden administration’s key immigration policies, including a proposed 100-day moratorium on deportations last January, and persuaded a federal judge last summer to demand that US border authorities to revive a Trump-era program that requires migrants to wait for their asylum hearings last year. Mexico.
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Pittman’s sentence was handed down just hours after a federal court of appeals in Washington, DC barrat the Biden administration used Title 42 to expel migrant families traveling with children to countries where they could be harmed or tortured. This order has not yet entered into force.
First launched in March 2020, Title 42 policy allows U.S. immigration authorities to deport migrants to Mexico or their country of origin without examining them for asylum or allowing them to see a judge. More than 1.6 million migrants have been deported so far, according to government data.
The Biden administration has retained the expulsions of Title 42, arguing that they are necessary to curb the spread of coronavirus in border detention facilities. Under Mr Biden, U.S. border officials have used Title 42 to expel most single adult migrants and some families traveling with minors.
But the Biden administration has refused to expel unaccompanied children, who have special legal protections under U.S. law. Instead, officials have been transporting unaccompanied children to shelters supervised by the Department of Health and Human Services, as required by a 2008 anti-trafficking law.
Upon entering HHS custody, unaccompanied children remain in government care until they are placed with sponsors, usually family members in the U.S. To stay in the U.S. permanently, they can apply for asylum or other benefits for immigrants, such as visas for abused, abandoned, or abandoned youth. .
On Friday, Pittman said the Biden administration did not adequately justify orders from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that codified the Title 42 exemption for unaccompanied minors last summer, calling them “arbitrary. and whimsical “and in violation of federal administrative law.
Pittman also agreed with Texas’ argument that undocumented migrant children could spread the coronavirus.
“Here, the President has exempted (arbitrarily) positive unaccompanied foreign children with COVID-19 from Title 42 procedures, which were intended to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” he wrote in his 37-page order.
The Biden administration has previously rejected these arguments, noting that all unaccompanied children are tested for coronavirus after being transferred to HHS, which has also offered vaccines to eligible minors.
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Texas, Pittman argued Friday, has been financially damaged by Title 42 exemptions because of the costs associated with schooling and medical services for migrant children who have moved to the state.
A record number of unaccompanied children reached the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2021. More than 122,000 of them were taken to HHS shelters, a maximum of all time.
It is unclear whether the administration will begin deporting unaccompanied minors in the run-up to Friday’s court order. During the Trump administration, nearly 16,000 unaccompanied children were deported under Title 42 before a federal judge blocked the practice in November 2020, calling it illegal.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) representatives did not immediately respond to requests to explain how he would comply with Friday’s court order. Pittman suspended his order for seven days to give the government time to appeal. The Justice Department, which would file the appeal, did not respond to a request for comment.
Neha Desai, a lawyer for the National Center for Juvenile Law representing migrant minors in a historic court case, denounced Friday’s ruling, recalling the “heartbreaking accounts” of the children she interviewed after being deported.
“This decision, which requires the Biden administration to block unaccompanied children from seeking security at our borders, will put thousands of children directly at risk,” Desai told CBS News. “There is no justification for public health to prevent children from seeking asylum and expelling them to life-threatening dangers.”
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