U.S. asks court to end asylum limits, with a short delay
EL PASO, Texas • The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to end asylum restrictions, but requested a delay until at least after Christmas.
The administration made the plea in a filing Tuesday, a day after Chief Justice John Roberts issued a temporary order to keep pandemic-era limits on migrants in place. Before Roberts issued that order, the restrictions were slated to expire on Wednesday.
Migrants have been denied rights to seek asylum under U.S. and international law 2.5 million times since March 2020 on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19 under a public-health rule called Title 42.
The federal government acknowledged in its filing to the Supreme Court that the end of Title 42 will likely lead to “disruption and a temporary increase in unlawful border crossings” but asked the court to reject efforts by a group of conservative leaning states to keep Title 42 in place.
“The government in no way seeks to minimize the seriousness of that problem. But the solution to that immigration problem cannot be to extend indefinitely a public-health measure that all now acknowledge has outlived its public-health justification,” the government wrote. Instead the government said it is surging resources to the U.S.-Mexico border to deal with any temporary disruptions that occur.
The federal government also asked that if the court denies the states’ efforts to keep Title 42 in place indefinitely that the court give the government some time to prepare. Specifically the government asked if the Supreme Court acts before Friday, it leave the temporary stay in place just until end of day on Dec. 27. And if the court denies the application on Friday or later, it wants the court to keep the restrictions in place until the second business day after the court issues an order. Either timeline — if granted — would mean Title 42 would be in place until at least after Christmas.
The request comes as suspense mounted at the U.S. border with Mexico about the future of restrictions on asylum-seekers. Conservative-leaning states want to maintain a measure that allows officials to expel many but not all asylum-seekers. In a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court, they argued that an increased numbers of migrants would take a toll on public services.
U.S. military stop migrants Tuesday from crossing into El Paso, Texas, seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
