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TRUENEWSBLOG – The United States can continue to quickly expel migrant families trapped crossing the U.S.-Mexico border but must avoid sending them anywhere they may be persecuted or tortured, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.
The ruling largely maintains the restrictions put in place by the administration of former Republican President Donald Trump with the aim of preventing the spread of COVID-19, despite the fact that many other border bans related to the coronavirus have been lifted.
A group of affected migrants, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other nonprofits, appealed against the removal policy known as Title 42, which President Joe Biden’s administration has largely upheld.
They argued that the expulsions were illegal, but the panel of judges of the appeals court disagreed, considering that the protected immigrants “do not have the right to be in the United States, and the Executive can expel them immediately.”
The court added, however, that “the Executive cannot expel foreigners to a country in which their ‘life or liberty would be threatened’ by their ‘race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion'” or “to a country in which they are likely to be tortured.”
Biden has struggled to uphold the Title 42 order, issued in March 2020 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Many Democrats, health experts and immigrant advocates oppose it, arguing that it illegally cuts off access to asylum and is not supported by scientific evidence.
Apprehensions at the border soared to record levels in 2021 during Biden’s first year in office and could rise further this year, officials told Reuters in January.
A federal judge ruled last September that the Title 42 policy could not apply to families, but the Biden administration appealed that decision. Early in his presidency, Biden exempted unaccompanied children from the expulsion policy.
Since Biden took office in January 2020, more than a million migrants have been expelled under the order. Many of them have been people who have crossed the border more than once.
