WASHINGTON — A Louisiana judge has extended his temporary block of the Biden administration’s plan to lift pandemic-related border restrictions on Monday.
In a ruling issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays in Lafayette wrote that lawyers for 24 plaintiff states had established that a “significant threat of injury” would arise if Title 42, a 1944 federal public health statute implemented by the Trump administration at the start of the pandemic, were to be lifted. He cited federal government figures predicting as large as a threefold increase in daily border crossings.
“The record also includes evidence supporting the plaintiff states’ position that such an increase in border crossings will increase their costs for health care reimbursements and education services,” Summerhays wrote in the 47-page ruling. “These costs are not recoverable.”
