Supreme Court Decision to Block Termination of Title 42 Described as "Devastating Failure of Justice"

WASHINGTON, DC – The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) has described as “a devastating failure of justice” the United States Supreme Court’s decision to temporarily prohibit termination of a public health measure, known as Title 42, to block Caribbean and other migrants from seeking asylum in the US.

NYIC executive director Murad Awawdeh (via CMC)Title 42, originally instituted by the Trump administration and continued under Biden’s, has permitted even migrants, such as Haitians and Venezuelans, who might have qualified for asylum to be quickly turned away at the US border.

In a terse unsigned order, the justices on Tuesday ruled that the Biden administration cannot end Title 42. It was originally slated to end on December 21 before Chief Justice John Roberts granted an appeal to pause the termination on December 19.

The US Supreme Court said on Tuesday that it would hear arguments in February in the case, filed by 19 states, led primarily by Republicans, who had sought to keep Tile 42 in place.

In denouncing the court’s decision, NYIC, an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York, said the ruling “will continue to jeopardize the safety of asylum seekers”, while demanding that US President Joe Biden secure additional protections for new arrivals.

“The Supreme Court’s decision today to prohibit the termination of Title 42 is a devastating failure of justice for the thousands of people and families who have been continually subjected to violence and cruelty because of this policy,” Murad Awawdeh, NYIC’s executive director, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

“For years, Title 42 has proven to be a horrifying distortion of American values, existing as a front for xenophobia and racism,” he added. “As Title 42 continues to be shuttled through the courts, it has resulted in untold pain and lives lost for those who are simply seeking freedom and safety in the United States.

“This is morally and ethically unacceptable, and the Supreme Court should be ashamed that they continue to sustain such an unsparing policy. We urge the Biden administration to take meaningful action and secure additional protections for asylum seekers, such that a humane and fair asylum system can finally be achieved for all,” Awawdeh continued.

On Tuesday, four of the nine US Supreme Court’s Justices – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil M. Gorsuch and Ketanji Brown Jackson – dissented with the majority decision.

Joined by Justice Brown Jackson, Justice Gorsuch, said the legal question that the court concurred to address, about the states’ intervention, “is not of special importance in its own right and would not normally warrant expedited review”.

“The current border crisis is not a COVID crisis,” Justice Gorsuch wrote. “And courts should not be in the business of perpetuating administrative edicts designed for one emergency only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency. We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who was born in Martinique and raised in Queens, New York, to Haitian immigrants, said the Biden administration will comply with the US Supreme Court’s order “and prepare for the court’s review”.

“At the same time, we are advancing our preparations to manage the border in a secure, orderly and humane way, when Title 42 eventually lifts and will continue expanding legal pathways for immigration,” she said in a White House statement.

“Title 42 is a public health measure, not an immigration enforcement measure, and it should not be extended indefinitely. To truly fix our broken immigration system, we need Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform measures like the ones President Biden proposed on his first day in office,” Jean-Pierre stressed.

“Today’s order gives Republicans in Congress plenty of time to move past political finger-pointing and join their Democratic colleagues in solving the challenge at our border by passing the comprehensive reform measures and delivering the additional funds for border security that President Biden has requested,” she added.

In early 2020, the Trump administration instituted Title 42, stating that it was necessary amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

But critics countered that the measure was a tactic to deport migrants, including Haitians and Venezuelans.

Since Title 42 was invoked more than 2.3 million migrants have been deported from the United States, according to immigration advocates.