The United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia granted the Biden administration a stay against a lower court’s injunction requiring the federal government to stop using the Title 42 COVID protection protocol. The Title 42 coronavirus protection protocol allows officials to expel migrant family units from the country. The D.C. Court of Appeals issued the stay hours before the Border Patrol was set to begin releasing all migrant family unit migrants with a child into the United States.
The court issued the stay to the earlier injunction in the case of Huisha-Huisha v Alejandro N. Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security in his official capacity, et al., filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and several migrant rights groups. The lower courts injunction, issued by Federal District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan on September 16, prohibited the Biden administration from removing any migrant family with a child under the age of 18 from the country under the CDC’s Title 42 protocol put in place during the Trump administration.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, the Border Patrol was prepared to release all migrant family units as of Thursday. The appellate court’s stay of the lower court’s injunction will allow the agency to continue with self-imposed, limited application of the Title 42 COVID-19 emergency order and swiftly expel some migrant family units from the United States.
The stay will remain in effect until the case is heard by the appellate court. Both parties will brief the court in November and oral arguments in the case will be scheduled for January 2022. According to the ACLU, the emergency order, initiated by the Trump administration, restricts immigration at the border based on an unprecedented and unlawful invocation of the Public Health Service Act, located in Title 42 of the U.S. Code.
ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, the lead lawyer in the Title 42 lawsuit responded to the court’s stay, saying, “If the Biden administration really wants to treat asylum seekers humanely, it should end this lawless policy now and withdraw its appeal. We will continue fighting to end this illegal policy.”
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.