Federal judge blocks Title 42 rule that allowed the removal of migrants at the US-Mexico border, restoring access for some asylum seekers

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Title 42, a controversial rule that has allowed US authorities to expel more than 1 million migrants who crossed the US-Mexico border.

Tuesday’s court order leaves the Biden administration without one of the key tools it had deployed to deal with the thousands of migrants arriving at the border daily and could restore access to asylum for arriving migrants.

While the rule was drafted by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration has relied heavily on it to manage the surge of migrants at the border.

District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington found the Title 42 order to be “arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.”

Before Title 42, all immigrants arrested at the border were processed under immigration law. Thousands of migrants sent back to Mexico have been waiting along the border in shelters. Officials have previously raised concerns about what the end of Title 42 could herald, given limited resources and a large number of people trying to enter the country.