OAN Roy Francis
2:01 PM PT – Thursday, February 16, 2023
The Supreme Court has announced that they will be dropping the case of the Title 42 public health order from their calendar.
The court did not give any reasoning for their decision after the announcement was made on Thursday. The Biden administration on the other hand has stated that the case will become irrelevant since Title 42 will end when the COVID-19 public health emergency is set to end in May.
Title 42 has been used by government agencies along the southern border to turn back and help lessen the number of illegal immigrants entering the country. The order was put in place by the Trump administration and has been also used by the current Biden administration.
However, a judge had previously ordered the Title to be ended in December 2022, and the Biden administration had rushed to remove it.
Republican lawmakers had appealed the decision to the Supreme Court which ultimately decided to suspend the removal of the order until after a formal hearing, where a decision was to be made.
President Joe Biden announced last month the end of the COVID-19 emergency declaration was to be on May 11th, which would also mark the end of Title 42 as well.
GOP-states that had appealed the earlier attempt by the Biden administration to end the order, might look to file a new lawsuit to delay the May 11th deadlines.
Records show that the order has been used in more than 2.5 million instances across the southern border to turn back illegal immigrants. Should Title 42 end in May, it would be around the same time of the year that border crossings start to increase.
The Department of Homeland Security has maintained that they have a six-point plan to enforce the removal of the order, which would increase resources to the border, cooperation with Mexico, as well as increase the rate of anti-smuggling operations.
As Title 42 draws closer to being ended, the Biden administration has still yet to reveal any detailed plans on how they will handle the record number of illegal immigrants that are coming into the country through the southern border.