U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan strikes again | Eastern NC Now

Lawenforcementtoday.com has the following posted by: Jenna Curren 

According to reports, on Thursday, September 16th, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. government must stop using a public health law to deny families entry into the United States illegally. 

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan gave the government 14 days to appeal before the order is implemented. Sullivan granted a preliminary injunction in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others on behalf of migrant families, stating they were likely to succeed in their challenge to the use of public health law known as Title 42.

Title 42 was instituted in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The law allows for expedited removal of most illegal immigrants, including families. 

The immediate effect of Sullivan’s ruling will be dire. Families that show up at the border will not be turned away. Instead, they will be processed and released as they await their court hearing, which can be up to five years away.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the ACLU filed the suit in January. The suit had been on hold for months in the spring and into the summer, as the ACLU and other immigrant-rights organizations negotiated with the government to ease the border restrictions. 

During that time, nongovernmental organizations including the ACLU identified thousands of families who were considered to be particularly vulnerable to be allowed to cross into the U.S. at still-closed border crossings. That exemption process formally ended in August.

The government does not have the facilities to house and care for the tens of thousands of families who will not make a mad dash for the border.

In a statement, the ACLU said the policy was unnecessary to control COVID-19 in the U.S. and that the U.S. can safely allow migrants to seek protection. Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement:

“President Biden should have ended this cruel and lawless policy long ago and the court was correct to reject it today.”

They made the argument that the families would suffer “irreparable harm” if Title 42 were allowed to continue. In August, a top DHS official told Judge Sullivan that the department was unable to process all families arriving at the southern border safely, pointing to the emergent delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 as a particular cause for concern.

Judge Sullivan was unpersuaded by the government’s logistical arguments as he was by its ready of the law, pointing to DHS’ previous acknowledgment that 86% of families arriving at the southern border are already being paroled into the U.S. 

The top DHS official added that meanwhile, those who are pushed out under Title 42 are put in settings where the virus is likely to be transmitted, including crowded buses and planes, without testing. 

In his ruling, the judge said that the use of Title 42 in this case is “likely unlawful” and also “unnecessary in the view of the wide availability of testing, vaccines, and other minimization measures” to address the potential spread of COVID-19.

According to the most recent statistics from Customs and Border Protection, in August, the U.S. invoked Title 42 to expel 16,240 people traveling in family groups who were encountered along the southwest border.

The total number of illegal immigrants encountered along the U.S.-Mexico border in August was nearly 209,000, which was down two percent from the previous month, but still exceeded recent periods of higher activity in 2019 and 2014, and was at levels not seen since 2000.

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