Last month, a federal judge blocked the use of Title 42 – the Trump-era policy that allows officials to expel migrants encountered at the US-Mexico border – but put a hold on the order for five weeks. With that hold set to expire next Wednesday, 19 GOP-led states have asked a federal appeals court to overturn the ruling by Friday and suspend the termination.
If the federal appeals court denies the request, the states ask the court to issue a seven-day administrative stay so that they can go to the Supreme Court for relief.
Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), says thousands of migrants are currently camped out on the other side of the border waiting to rush the United States when the public health policy ends.
"Clearly, Title 42 is still very necessary," he submits. "It was never intended to be an immigration enforcement mechanism, but in reality, it is the only thing that is standing between us and an even larger influx of people coming across the border illegally. And legitimately, there are public health issues that need to be addressed."
Chief among them, he says, is the fentanyl crisis.
"You have the same cartels that are smuggling people into the country smuggling fentanyl in," Mehlman reports. "It's killing more than 100,000 Americans every year. The CDC has said that fentanyl is a public health menace."
Since March 2020, when the COVID restriction was invoked, border authorities have used Title 42 to expel nearly 2.5 million illegal aliens.
