The news broke on Friday that a judge had blocked the Biden administration from lifting the restrictions imposed by Title 42.

As our readers know, Title 42 was the Trump-era order that allowed for illegals crossing the border to be immediately sent back over the border during the COVID pandemic. As bad as the current situation is, Title 42 was one of the only tools left to a beleaguered Border Patrol to keep them from being completely overrun. The Biden administration decided “pandemic over!” (though the national emergency was extended – the pandemic will continue for political convenience, and end for political convenience as well) and announced back in April that Title 42 would be lifted on May 23rd. The attorneys general of Louisiana, Missouri, and Arizona then sued the federal government to stop the end of the program.

There was bipartisan horror at what would happen when Title 42 was no longer in effect. Some Democrats – many up for election or re-election, many in swing states – realized that what was coming would not play well for the midterms. And the warnings of what would happen to the border areas were dire.

Hours before a Louisiana federal judge ordered the Biden administration to keep the Title 42 health authority in place, El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego met with officials from the Department of Homeland Security to discuss what he described as a looming “crisis.”

“Right now, Title 42 would be difficult for us … if it gets lifted,” Samaneigo told The Post.”

Earlier this week, DHS reported that the number of migrant encounters along the US-Mexico border had soared to 234,088 in April — the most in the agency’s history. Just under 97,000 people had been summarily expelled under Title 42 and more than 110,000 more were released into the US. Almost 30,000 of those encounters were recorded by Border Patrol agents in the El Paso sector, making it the third-busiest enforcement area along the frontier.”

The prospect of hundreds of thousands more migrants trying to cross the border (One widely reported estimate by DHS suggested as many as 18,000 per day would attempt to come in) left local officials scrambling for sites big enough to hold the expected arrivals. At one meeting, Samaniego floated the Sun Bowl stadium as a possible location for a shelter.

What El Paso doesn’t want is dozens of immigrant dumped onto the streets, Samaneigo admitted.”

“The optics are very difficult. Communities sort of panic,” he said. “They feel it’s not safe anymore. El Paso is really developing as a place you want to come to. Tourism is starting to develop. People always comment how you don’t see homeless on the streets. So we’re going to go from that to seeing people sleeping on the streets.”

Even with Title 42, the border is being flooded.

So, on Friday, a Louisiana judge blocked the Biden administration from lifting Title 42.

Judge Robert Summerhays, in the Western District of Louisiana, granted a preliminary injunction on the Biden administration’s plan to end the order on May 23. It was in response to a lawsuit by two dozen Republican states, led by Arizona, Louisiana and Missouri.”

“Today’s ruling is a significant win as Title 42 is one of the few policies that is actually working,” said Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich. “I’m grateful to the court for upholding the rule of law and helping maintain some level of sanity as we continue to battle the Biden-made border crisis.”

Summerhays, in his order, said that the record supports the states’ position “that the Termination Order will result in increased border crossings and that, based on the government’s estimates, the increase may be as high as three-fold.” He also agreed with states that lifting Title 42 will increase costs on healthcare and education – and said the government did not dispute that claim.”

“In sum, the Plaintiff States have demonstrated that the Termination Order will affect their ‘quasi-sovereign’ interests based on its impact on their healthcare systems and their interest in the health and welfare of their citizens,” he said.”

But late Friday evening, the Justice Department announced that they would be appealing the ruling.

The Department of Justice today released the following statement from spokesman Anthony Coley:

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) invoked its authority under Title 42 due to the unprecedented public-health dangers caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. CDC has now determined, in its expert opinion, that continued reliance on this authority is no longer warranted in light of the current public-health circumstances. That decision was a lawful exercise of CDC’s authority.”

“The Department of Justice intends to appeal the court’s decision in Louisiana et al. v. CDC et al.”

Yes, you’re reading that correctly. The “current public-health circumstances” mean that Title 42 should be lifted, AND that kids ages 5 to 11 should get booster shots. Isn’t COVID policy great? It can be anything the Democrats want it to be!

Everyone who is willing to acknowledge the truth realizes that if Title 42 is lifted, the border, which is already an open sieve, will become an open faucet.

The question now becomes, what will happen with the large numbers of migrants who have gathered in Mexican border cities, waiting to cross into the US after 5/23 when they expected T42 to end?
Will they give it a shot and cross anyways? We will find out in the coming days.

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 20, 2022

With the DOJ appealing the decision, the Supreme Court could get involved sooner rather than later. And given their current record on allowing the CDC to overreach and set policy, Title 42 could remain in effect for a while. Just how well it will be enforced? Well, that’s another question entirely.

Featured image via succo on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license