US APPEALS: BIDEN MAY STILL DEPORT MIGRANTS FAMILIES FROM MEXICAN BORDER

TRUE NEWS BLOG – The United States can still quickly expel migrant families trapped crossing the US-Mexico border but must avoid sending them anywhere where they could be persecuted or tortured, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.

The ruling largely upholds the restrictions put in place by former Republican President Donald Trump’s administration to prevent the spread of COVID-19, although many other coronavirus-related border bans have been lifted.

A group of concerned migrants, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other nonprofit organizations, appealed the deportation policy known as Title 42, which President Joe Biden’s administration has largely endorsed.

They argued that the deportations were illegal, but the appeals court judges disagreed because the protected immigrants “have no right to reside in the United States and the law enforcement agency can expel them immediately.”

However, the court added that “the executive branch cannot expel aliens to a country where 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 where they are likely to be tortured.”

Biden is struggling to uphold Order 42 issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in March 2020.

Many Democrats, health experts and immigrant advocates oppose it, arguing that it illegally cuts off access to asylum and is not backed by scientific evidence.

Fears at the border rose 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 deportation policies.

Since Biden took office in January 2020, more than a million migrants have been deported under the order. Many of them were people who crossed the border more than once.