Biden administration asks Supreme Court to deny GOP bid to prolong Title 42 border expulsions, calling policy "obsolete"

El Paso, Texas — The Biden administration on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to deny a request by Republican-led states to keep the Title 42 pandemic-era border restrictions in place indefinitely, saying the expulsions of migrants under the policy can no longer be justified on public health grounds.

In a 41-page filing, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who represents the Biden administration in federal litigation, said the government is prepared to comply with a lower court order in November that found Title 42 to be illegal. Prelogar also argued that the 19 Republican-controlled states seeking to delay Title 42's rescission were not entitled to intervene in the court case over the policy's legality.

First enacted in early 2020 by the Trump administration, Title 42 has allowed U.S. border officials to rapidly expel hundreds of thousands of migrants to Mexico or their home country, without allowing them to seek asylum, on the grounds that their entry could contribute to the spread of COVID-19 inside the U.S.