A federal district court judge in Louisiana has issued a transient restraining order (TRO) to Republican attorneys general in more than a dozen states against the Biden administration, requiring the administration to keep Title 42 in force, at least for now.
As Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich noted in the successful TRO – he was joined by the attorneys general of Louisiana, Missouri, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio and Oklahoma, Carolina Southern, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming:
…(*42*) Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) and (*42*) subsidiaries are already partially implementing the Termination Order. Yesterday, major media outlets reported that “The Border Patrol is not using the Title 42 public health order to remove many migrants from the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, more than a month before the Biden administration fully lifted the order,” according to “many sources of the Border Guard. DHS appears to admit it has partially ended Title 42 on the grounds that return flights to “certain non-contiguous countries” take too long. However, DHS has previously returned foreign nationals to Mexico when flights were restricted, and this action is the only one that is consistent with the public health harms detailed in the Title 42 regulation, which is still in effect. So while Title 42 may “technically still apply,” the art reality is that DHS has “largely stopped using Title 42 to remove migrants from Northern Triangle countries and is instead dealing with them under Title 8 and expedited removal.”
“This Court should immediately issue a TRO and require DHS to explain its actions so that the States and the Court may take appropriate action in response to certain (or not) highly inappropriate DHS actions that directly undermine this Court’s authority to remedy the harm that the challenged action would cause agencies,” the AG demanded.
The Court was persuaded by this conclusion and therefore granted a TRO to restrain the Biden administration from rolling back Title 42 until the case is concluded.
NEW: The federal court judge overseeing the Title 42 case just issued this memo saying he intends to issue a temporary restraining order, but the Justice Department and Republican-led states will try to reach an agreement. pic.twitter.com/5mO38AWaO3
— Hamed Aleaziz (@Haleaziz) April 25, 2022
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who will also run for U.S. Senate in the November midterm elections, celebrated the judge’s ruling as a “major victory for border security.”
BREAKING NEWS: In a lawsuit originally filed by Missouri, Louisiana and Arizona, our Office just obtained a temporary restraining order to keep Title 42 in effect. This is a huge victory for border security, but the fight continues.
— Attorney General Eric Schmitt (@AGEricSchmitt) April 25, 2022
“We will continue to fight the Biden administration’s open borders policy,” said Arizona AG Brnovich, who is campaigning this year to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.
BREAKING: I am very proud of the attorneys in our office who just obtained a transient restraining order to keep Title 42 in effect. We will continue to fight the Biden administration’s open borders policy.
— Mark Brnovich (@GeneralBrnovich) April 25, 2022
While keeping Title 42 in force is only transient until the rest of the case is resolved, Louisiana AG’s Jeff Landry welcomed the fact that, at least for now, “Biden’s plan to repeal Title 42 has been put on hold.”
????
GRANTED!
Biden’s plan to repeal Title 42 is on hold. #nationalsecurity #southernborder
— AG Jeff Landry (@AGJeffLandry) April 25, 2022
