By Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States can continue to rapidly expel migrant families caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, but should avoid sending them anywhere they could be persecuted or tortured, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.
The mixed ruling largely upholds restrictions put in place by the administration of former Republican President Donald Trump aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19 even as many other coronavirus-related border bans have been lifted.
A group of affected migrants, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other non-profit organizations, sued over the expulsion policy known as Title 42, which the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat who took office a year ago, has largely kept in place.
They argued the expulsions were illegal but the panel of appeals court judges disagreed, finding it likely that the covered migrants “have no right to be in the United States, and the Executive can immediately expel them.”
The court added however, that “the Executive cannot remove aliens to a country where their ‘life or freedom would be threatened’ on account of their ‘race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion'” or “to a country where they will likely be tortured.”
Biden has fought to retain the Title 42 order, which was issued in March 2020 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Many Democrats, health experts and pro-immigrant advocates oppose the order, saying it unlawfully cuts off access to asylum and is not supported by scientific evidence.
Border arrests soared to record levels in 2021 during Biden’s first year in office and could climb even higher this year, officials told Reuters in January.
A federal judge ruled last September that the Title 42 policy could not be applied to families but the Biden administration appealed that decision. Early in his presidency, Biden exempted unaccompanied children from the expulsion policy.
Since Biden took office in January 2020, more than a million migrants have been expelled under the order. Many of those have been people who have crossed the border more than once.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Additional reporting by Kristina Cooke; Editing by Mica Rosenberg and Aurora Ellis)
