GOP states ask the Supreme Court to maintain Trump-era immigration policy

WASHINGTON — Republican-led states on Monday asked the Supreme Court to retain a Trump-era immigration policy implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to allow asylum seekers to be quickly turned away at the border.

The 19 states led by Arizona and Louisiana announced they have filed an emergency application at the high court after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last week rejected their request to intervene in the case in a bid to block a district court judge’s that ordered the policy, known as Title 42, to be wound down.

Absent Supreme Court intervention, the policy will terminate on Wednesday.

“Getting rid of Title 42 will recklessly and needlessly endanger more Americans and migrants by exacerbating the catastrophe that is occurring at our southern border,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a statement.

The states say President Joe Biden’s administration had “abandoned meaningful defense” of the rule, saying it effectively engineered, with the help of lawyers challenging the policy, a ruling that would end it. As a result, the states are seeking to intervene in order to keep it in place. The appeals court said in its order last week that the states had waited too long before attempting to intervene.

In a separate case, the administration’s previous effort to unwind the policy had been blocked by a federal judge.

Title 42, named after a section of U.S. law, gives the federal government power to take emergency action to keep diseases out of the country. Former President Donald Trump invoked it when the pandemic broke out and it has remained in effect during the Biden administration. More than 2 million people have been expelled from the country as a result.

Various civil rights groups, including the Americans Civil Liberties Union, challenged the policy on behalf of people covered by it.