A federal judge in Washington on Tuesday vacated a controversial border policy known as Title 42, a public health law invoked by the Trump administration during the pandemic that had allowed border agents to quickly turn back migrants.
The order blocks government officials’ use of a policy that has been criticized by immigrant-rights advocates. It came just days after the Biden administration ousted Chris Magnus, the Trump-appointed head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection who had clashed with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas.
Within hours of the ruling, the Biden administration sought a five-week stay of the order, arguing that it needed time to transition border processing. The government said in its filing that the ACLU, which brought the legal challenge against Title 42, did not oppose the motion.
