The Texas Attorney General's Office has sued the CDC and several other government agencies over the Biden Administration's plan to end the use of Title 42. That measure was put into place by the federal government as COVID-19 cases were increasing at the start of the pandemic. It allows immigration agents to quickly expel migrants stopped at the border with Mexico as a way to limit the spread of COVID-19. The measure is scheduled to be dropped on May 23.
Texas is suing to force the Biden Administration to keep the policy in place. Governor Greg Abbott has made it a focus of his news conferences in the past few weeks. He said this week that canceling the deportation policy would mean an increase in the number of people coming into the country illegally.
"When that happens, according to the Biden Administration itself, it should lead to about 18,000 people crossing the border illegally each day," Gov. Abbott said. "If you multiply that out annually, that would be more than six-million people coming across the border illegally in just a year."
Title 42 was used in more than one-million expulsion cases in the 2021 fiscal year, It has been used in more than 500,000 expulsion cases during the 2022 fiscal year.
The lawsuit by the Texas Attorney General argues that federal agencies have not followed proper procedures in deciding to stop the policy. Those are laid out in the Administrative Procedure Act.
"The State of Texas may have the ability to see if the Biden Administration is closing Title 42 properly," said SMU law professor Eric Cedillo. "There's a number of things you have to do when you change executive action, even if it's from one administration to the next. One of those is comporting with the APA, which requires public comment."
The Texas lawsuit also argues that the decision to end Title 42 is "arbitrary and capricious". The lawsuit was filed in federal court in south Texas.
"They have done it in a venue that allows them to at least get a judge to perhaps stop the Biden Administration from closing it initially, but that would be immediately appealable," said Cedillo.
Related
