The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is warning immigrants that the administration is continuing to enforce Title 42, after the Supreme Court this week temporarily halted the expiration of the Trump-era policy.
The agency is also alerting immigrants of dangerously low temperatures at the border, as a winter storm moves through Texas.
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues to fully enforce our immigration and public health laws at the border,” DHS wrote in a statement on Saturday. “Individuals and families attempting to enter without authorization are being expelled, as required by court order under the Title 42 public health authority, or placed into removal proceedings.”
“As temperatures remain dangerously low all along the border, no one should put their lives in the hands of smugglers, or risk life and limb attempting to cross only to be returned,” the agency added.
El Paso, Texas this month has been dealing with a surge of migrants coupled with freezing temperatures, exacerbating a humanitarian crisis. The migrants are coming to El Paso for a series of reasons; the planned expiration of Title 42 had been seen as a factor.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday put the brakes on the expiration of Title 42, which was initially scheduled to end on Wednesday. The Trump-era policy allows border officials to turn away asylum seekers because of concerns regarding public health.
The bench’s administrative stay came after a federal judge in November struck down the policy. That decision led 19 Republican state attorneys general to ask the Supreme Court to let the policy remain in place.
The Biden administration on Tuesday requested that Chief Justice John Roberts rule against that coalition of GOP-led states, arguing that the public health rationale holding up the policy is not valid anymore.
The DHS on Saturday said regardless of an immigrant’s nationality, “anyone attempting to enter without authorization is subject to expulsion under Title 42.”
“Those who cannot be expelled pursuant to Title 42 may be placed in expedited removal and anyone ordered removed subject to a bar on entry for 5 years under Title 8,” the agency added.
The statement said 23,000 agents and officers are “working to secure” the Southwest border, adding that the U.S. government “continues to work closely with our partners in Mexico to reinforce coordinated enforcement operations to target human smuggling organizations and bring them to justice.”
“That collaboration includes migration checkpoints, additional resources and personnel, joint targeting of human smuggling organizations, and expanded information sharing related to transit nodes, hotels, stash houses, and staging locations,” the agency said.
Source: The Hill
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