Biden administration faces new legal hurdles at border as Title 42 ends

(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration on Friday faced new legal hurdles to its plans to manage a migration crisis as Title 42 pandemic-era border restrictions came to an end Thursday night.

A federal judge in Florida late Thursday temporarily blocked U.S. Customs and Border Protection from releasing migrants without a formal notice to appear in court.

The parole authority CBP uses to release migrants quickly comes with requirements to report back to authorities, even if no court date has been set.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas sharply criticized the ruling by Judge T. Kent Wetherell in an interview Friday morning with ABC News’ Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos.

“This is a harmful ruling and the Department of Justice is considering our options,” Mayorkas said.

Separately, the American Civil Liberties Union and other immigrant advocates filed a lawsuit challenging the new Biden administration restrictions on asylum that are taking effect Friday.

“People fleeing persecution have a legal right to seek asylum, no matter how they reach the border,” litigation chief Melissa Crow with the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies said in a statement. “Our asylum system was designed to protect people fleeing imminent threats to their lives, who do not have the luxury of waiting for an elusive appointment or for an application to be adjudicated in a country where they are in danger.”

The new limits on asylum target migrants who cross illegally between federal southwest border check points.

Those non-Mexicans who do not apply for asylum elsewhere will face expedited deportation.

The Department of Homeland Security has braced for an expected surge of migration timed to the end of the controversial pandemic protocols, under Title 42 of the U.S. Code, that allowed for the rapid expulsion of millions of migrants.

“And now we are using our immigration authorities, our traditional immigration authorities, that deliver tougher consequences for people who cross the border illegally,” Mayorkas said.

Title 8 of the U.S. Code is traditional immigration law. And while it does allow for expedited deportations, migrants processed under these laws have typically been afforded more time to make an asylum claim.

Part of the Biden administration’s plan involves ramping up the deportation process and imposing penalties on those who try to reenter the U.S. illegally.

The administration has also created new, but limited, routes for migrants to obtain legal status from outside the U.S. A parole process for Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans offers temporary status and the chance to apply for asylum for up to 30,000 qualified migrants.

“We have built lawful, safe and orderly pathways for them to come to the United States,” Mayorkas said. “They are going to meet tough consequences if they arrive at our border irregularly.”

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