President Joe Biden's administration can quickly deport asylum seekers. Still, only to places where the migrants are not at risk of torture or persecution.
The court decided that the government can maintain the Title 42 rule of immediate deportation if the migrants don't face severe risks.
Title 42, implemented by former President Donald Trump in March 2020 and continued by President Biden, authorizes the rapid and even immediate deportation of asylum seekers to prevent potential COVID-19 infections.
The court's decision is a victory in acknowledging that the US government should not push human beings into harm's way," attorney Margaret Cargioli, director of the Cross-Border Initiative Project at the Law Center Immigrant Defenders, told Chula Vista Today.
She said, "the Biden administration should not appeal this decision and make good on its promise to restore asylum. Instead, the administration must stop expelling asylum seekers into harm's way."
The legal center stated that "since its inception, Title 42 has been inhumane and illegal and an overreach of its original intent as a health order," because "instead of protecting, it caused more harm to vulnerable asylum seekers and denied their right to security."
At the same time, a federal court in Texas determined that unaccompanied minors, whom the Biden administration has excluded from the application of Title 42, will now also have to be deported under that measure.
The court's decision in Texas came just hours after the appeals court barred the deportation of asylum seekers to places where they face torture and persecution.
