U.S. can’t quickly expel migrants under pandemic-era health rule, federal judge says

Migrants arrive in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, after being sent across the border by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in July 2019. (Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune)

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the federal government from continuing to use an emergency health order known as Title 42 to immediately expel migrants at the southern border after they have entered the United States.

Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s use of Title 42 to prevent people from accessing the asylum process is “arbitrary and capricious” and a violation of the law because it was not implemented properly.