US: Judge rules to give Biden administration five weeks to scrap Title 42 policy

A US judge ruled that the Biden administration has five weeks to end an immigration policy that allowed authorities to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking asylum on the southern border of Mexico. The judge cited that the Title 42 policy breached federal regulatory law.

US District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan said in a 49-page filing Tuesday that the Title 42 policy was an “arbitrary and capricious” policy that breached federal regulatory law. The administration filed an unopposed motion requesting the delay. By Wednesday, Sullivan said he granted the motion to delay with reluctance, adding that the order halting the border expulsion policy will be in effect on December 2.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a separate statement saying that it needed five weeks to “prepare for an orderly transition” at the southern border. “The United States will continue to fully enforce our immigration laws at our border.”

Sullivan’s ruling was welcomed by human rights groups. The Title 42 policy was largely criticized as a violation of US and international laws that would endanger asylum seekers and refugees. Over 2.4 million Title 42 expulsions were carried out at the southern border since the policy was put in place by President Joe Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump’s administration back in March 2020.

The Trump administration argued that Title 42 was necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, experts said it was a pretext to further the Trump administration’s hardline, anti-immigrant policies.

A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, Lee Gelernt, who led the challenge to the policy, said Sullivan’s decision was “a huge victory and one that literally has life-and-death stakes.”

US regulators Thursday approved a plan to demolish four dams in the California river, opening up hundreds of miles of salmon habitat in what is seen as the largest dam removal and river restoration project in the world when it goes into effect.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted unanimously in favor of the plan on the lower Klamath River dams, clearing the last regulatory hurdle and the biggest milestone for the $500 million demolition proposal that was advocated for by Native American tribes and environmentalists.