Biden administration to appeal ruling invalidating Title 42 border restriction, but won't seek to delay its end

Washington — The Biden administration will be appealing a court ruling that invalidated a public health order U.S. border officials have used to expel migrants en masse from the U.S.-Mexico border during the coronavirus pandemic, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

In a filing in the federal district court in Washington, D.C., the Justice Department said the administration had decided to appeal a ruling from last month that will require the government to stop enforcing the pandemic-era border restriction, known as Title 42, the section of the U.S. code containing public health laws.

"The government respectfully disagrees with this Court's decision and would argue on appeal, as it has argued in this Court, that CDC's Title 42 Orders were lawful," the Justice Department said in its filing to U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, who declared the Trump-era policy unlawful last month.