WASHINGTON — A Louisiana judge has extended his temporary block of the Biden administration’s plan to lift pandemic-related border restrictions on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays in Lafayette heard arguments last week from lawyers for Louisiana, Arizona and Missouri in their lawsuit with 21 other states seeking to prevent the federal government from rescinding the Trump administration’s unprecedented decision to use a 1944 federal public health statute, Title 42, citing the need to curb the spread of COVID-19.
In a ruling issued Friday, Summerhays wrote that lawyers for the plaintiff states had established a “significant threat of injury” if Title 42 were lifted. He cited federal government figures predicting as large as a threefold increase in daily border crossings.
