A Texas judge on Friday has put a stop to another one of the Biden administration’s attempts in reversing former President Donald Trump’s policies.
Texas District Court Judge Mark Pittman ruled that the Biden administration cannot exempt minor migrants from Title 42, a controversial policy implemented by Trump back in March 2020 that allowed the U.S. Border Patrol to turn migrants away.
The Biden administration has continued to operate under that order, which they have argued is necessary to curb the spread of COVID-19 inside border detention facilities.
However, officials have declined to expel unaccompanied migrant children. Instead, they are transferred to shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Pittman said that the Biden administration failed to properly justify the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention orders that codified the exclusion of unaccompanied minors from Title 42, calling them “arbitrary and capricious” and in violation of federal administrative law.
The judge also argued that Texas has been harmed financially as a result of the Title 42 exemptions because of education and medical costs for the migrant children now living in the state.
“The President has (arbitrarily) excepted COVID-19 positive unaccompanied alien children from Title 42 procedures—which were purposed with preventing the spread of COVID-19. As a result, border states such as Texas now uniquely bear the brunt of the ramifications,” Pittman wrote.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated the decision on Twitter, calling it a win for his state and children.
“Huge win against Biden!” Paxton wrote. “I sued the Admin for failing to use Title 42, [contributing] to massive wave of smuggling. [Federal] court just blocked Biden from excepting alien minors from the Title 42 process. Win for Texas [and] children—loss for Biden [and] cartels!”
The ruling comes after Texas successfully blocked a 100-day deportation moratorium from being enforced last February, and the Supreme Court siding with the state in August in a battle to reimplement Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, a more controversial Trump-era immigration program.
According to government data, more than 1.6 million illegal aliens have already been expelled since Title 42 was implemented.
