AILA President Allen Orr Responds to Today’s Court Decision on Title 42

Allen Orr, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), responded to the news that Judge Sullivan ruled the use of Title 42 against families with young children seeking asylum is illegal. While Judge Sullivan stayed the injunction for two weeks, this ruling is welcome news:

“We have repeatedly called for the Trump administration, and now the Biden administration, to end the use of ‘Title 42’, a policy that has no basis in medical science and weaponized COVID-19 fears to halt bona fide asylum seekers, the majority of whom are black and brown, at the Southern border. The Biden administration has continued the misuse of a law intended to protect public health to suspend immigration under the guise of stemming the spread of COVID-19. That political decision has now been ruled illegal by Judge Sullivan as a result of litigation led by the ACLU. The use of Title 42 in this manner is shameful; as AILA has said repeatedly, the United States can and must protect public health while honoring our humanitarian values and policies that offer protection to asylum seekers. We hope today’s ruling will also be a clear warning to those pushing for the re-implementation of other illegal policies that turn away asylum seekers like the Migrant Protection Protocols (‘Remain in Mexico’).”