A group of mainly Republican-led states are seeking to get involved in the deliberations over Title 42 and want a federal judge to keep the border expulsion public health rule in place.
In a filing with the court on Monday night, fifteen state attorneys general requested to intervene in the case after federal Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., ruled against Title 42 last week. The policy is set to expire on December 21, but the states want to see it prolonged.
The states requesting to intervene are Arizona, Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
“Because invalidation of the Title 42 Orders will directly harm the States, they now seek to intervene to offer a defense of the Title 42 policy so that its validity can be resolved on the merits, rather than through strategic surrender,” the filing said.
“[B]order states like Arizona and Texas will face increased migrant flows and increasd [sic] releases of aliens if the Title 42 process is terminated. Those aliens will flow to other States, too,” it added, noting that “[w]herever those aliens end up, they will impose financial burdens on the States involuntarily hosting them.”
Title 42 was put in place during the COVID pandemic and allowed border officials to rapidly remove migrants from the country due to public health concerns. The Biden administration has used the policy even though it tried to get rid of it earlier this year. When Sullivan decided to get rid of the rule, the Biden administration did not challenge it, but asked for a temporary pause before it ended.
The states in the filing claimed that they have an interest in the decision to lift the order due to the effect of migrants coming into the United States. Border authorities have removed 2.4 million migrants using Title 42 since it went into effect.
“At bottom, the important issues in this case should be decided on the merits, rather than through surrender. A central issue in this case is the costs imposed on the States. Allowing intervention will ensure those interests are represented,” the filing noted.
The migrant crisis has been the center of national news in recent months, largely due to Republican Governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis sending migrants to states and communities that claim to be welcoming of migrants. Abbott recently sent more migrants to Philadelphia and said that his state has sent almost 8,400 migrants to Washington, D.C., over 3,800 to New York City, more than 1,200 to Chicago, and 100 to Philadelphia, as of Monday.
