Biden administration seeking to overturn order ending migrant expulsions

US President Joe Biden’s administration is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that would end the expulsion of migrant families from the border citing coronavirus concerns.

Judge Emmet Sullivan of the Columbia District Court ordered border authorities to stop expelling migrant families with children under a public health order Title 42.

The health statute was created in 1944 and was used by the Trump administration to “prohibit…the introduction of [people to the country]” over concerns that an open border policy would spread the coronavirus.

The Biden administration is appealing the order at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

“Given the grave harm that the Title 42 policy inflicts on desperate, asylum-seeking families, and the public health community’s view that the policy is not necessary, we would have hoped the administration would simply accept the ruling, especially given its repeated claim that it wants to distance itself from the Trump administration’s asylum practices,” Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s immigrant rights project, told the Los Angeles Times.

"It's extremely disappointing that the Biden administration is willing to fight tooth and nail to uphold President Trump's xenophobic immigration policies. Despite this appeal, we know the law is on our side and we will keep fighting with our co-counsel on behalf of refugees," Noah Gottschalk, Oxfam America's global policy lead, said in a statement.

Several rights groups are also opposed to the appeal, which they say endangers children.           

Title 42 was reviewed and kept in place by the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in August after the rise of the Delta variant. It decided to keep it "until the CDC determines that the danger of further introduction of Covid-19 into the United States from covered noncitizens has ceased to be a serious danger to the public health."

Some 86,000 migrant parents crossed the border with their children last month, and some 16,000 were immediately expelled, according to government statistics.