President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday extended a Trump-era border restriction that started during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Title 42 order was issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last year, enabling government workers to immediately kick out anyone captured crossing the border illegally without a hearing.
The order has been largely backed by the Biden administration, and on Monday the CDC’s director announced its continuation.
“This order was issued on August 2, 2021 and shall remain in effect until the CDC Director determines that the danger of further introduction of COVID-19 into the United States from covered noncitizens has ceased to be a serious danger to the public health, and the Order is no longer necessary to protect the public health,” the public health agency said in a statement.
Earlier Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki, when asked whether Biden sees Title 42 as a Trump-era policy, told reporters in Washington that Biden views it as a public health measure.
The CDC will provide guidance on how long it needs to be in place, she said.
“We have not given a timeline of when we will, they will lift Title 42, but we will look for them to provide us that guidance,” she said.
The government was hit in January with a lawsuit over Title 42 when Trump was still in office.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, three families who illegally entered the United States, attempted to hammer out a compromise with the government after filing the suit, but weeks of negotiations reached a stalemate, the parties said in a court filing on Monday.
“The parties’ discussions attempting to resolve or narrow the dispute in this case have reached an impasse,” the filing stated. “The parties therefore seek to resume litigation on Plaintiffs’ motions for class certification and classwide preliminary injunction.”
Plaintiff lawyers said in the suit that the families, who were expelled under Title 42, “were entitled to assert claims for asylum and related forms of humanitarian protection, and to procedures Congress established to ensure the fair determination of their right to remain in the United States,” according to the Jan. 12 complaint.
