Several migrants cross from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso on December 17. JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ (Portal)
The Supreme Court has extended the life of Title 42, the rule imposed by Donald Trump during the pandemic nearly three years ago, which expired the first minute on Wednesday, December 21. This measure has enabled the United States government to quickly deport immigrants arriving at the border with Mexico. The Constitutional Court’s decision came this Monday afternoon, hours after a coalition of 19 Republican states filed a request for an extension amid fears of border collapse and the impact it would have on their regions. The decision of John Robert, the President of the Supreme Court, is tentative. The Biden administration must present new arguments in court this Tuesday if it wants to end a controversial initiative that has been criticized by human rights organizations.
Title 42 came into effect in March 2020 to prevent new outbreaks of the coronavirus on US soil. Despite being a sanitary measure, it has become a political weapon that has sparked a tug of war in courts. Emmet Sullivan, a federal district judge, said in November that the initiative was inhumane because it sent thousands of people back to places where there was a high likelihood they would be “persecuted, tortured, beaten or raped.” On Friday, an appeals court upheld Sullivan’s position and paved the way for the Biden administration to reverse what he announced in May. This would be replaced, according to the government, with a migration policy that analyzes the thousands of asylum applications that are made every day in more detail.
“As requested by the Supreme Court’s order, Title 42 remains in effect for the time being. Individuals attempting to enter the United States illegally will continue to be sent to Mexico,” said Marcha Espinosa, public affairs officer for the Department of Homeland Security. Unlike deportation, a process that can take months or even years, Title 42 allows Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to quickly fingerprint detainees and ship them to Mexico. All in minutes. The situation prompted many to attempt the crossing again days later. An analysis of the measure’s first year and a half showed that about 4,000 people had tried it 20 times. A Mexican tried his luck 81 times, according to the Washington Post.
The Republican bloc has been demonstrating against the end of a measure that has helped return 2.4 million people to Mexico (one person may have been deported more than once). “The fight for Title 42 continues,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said this afternoon. Greg Abbott, the state’s governor, has celebrated the tentative decision. “The order is a step in the right direction. This helps prevent illegal immigration,” the president said on Twitter. The governments of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming have also joined in this goal.
The planned end of the measure has increased tensions for the border. The authorities assured a few weeks ago that they were ready to deal with a situation of 18,000 immigrants a day. This number has not been reached, but migration flows have increased sharply. The press has reported a constant trickle of people in recent weeks. Calculations assume that between 9,000 and 14,000 migrants arrive at the more than 3,000 km long common border.
This situation has thrown several cities and even Democratic strongholds into trouble. Oscar Leeser, the progressive mayor of El Paso, a border town with Texas, declared a state of emergency for the city on Saturday. The politician reiterated that this would allow the city council to temporarily increase its resources to support the arrival of thousands of migrants. “We want to make sure people are treated with dignity and that everyone is safe,” Leeser told reporters. The money provides housing and food for people who have arrived from Mexico. Washington has warned that arrivals of citizens from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba have increased in recent months.
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Gavin Newsom, the governor of California and one of the most important voices among Democrats, also issued a warning. The charismatic leader complained that the Biden administration is increasing dispatching flights and buses full of immigrants to his unit. “We have nine immigration centers full,” the president told ABC last week. Newsom asserted that budget pressures from other issues are threatening the operation of these centers and that many of them would end up on the streets if people continued to arrive, fueling the homeless problem. “The fact is what we have now is not working. And it’s on the verge of collapsing into a post-Title 42 world if we don’t face up to our responsibilities.” Both political camps seem to be saying that the border is on the verge of collapse.
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