WASHINGTON — The Biden administration urged the Supreme Court on Tuesday to reject a last-ditch effort by a group of states to preserve pandemic-related asylum restrictions, which were initially set to end Wednesday before the high court halted the termination.
The Department of Justice argued in a filing that the Republican-led states should not be allowed to join litigation to defend the so-called Title 42 policy, which was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic and allows border agents to rapidly turn back migrants without considering their asylum claims.
The Biden administration told the justices that it is not fighting to preserve Title 42 now in part because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency that issued the border directive, has already decided the policy is no longer needed at this stage of the pandemic.
