MORGANTOWN — State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced on Friday that he’s joined a 21-state lawsuit against the Biden administration for its plan to rescind the public health policy Title 42.
The policy was intended to stop the spread of COVID by permitting the Border Patrol to turn away arrested illegal immigrants and asylum seekers. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley More Capito earlier this month joined a bipartisan group of senators to co-sponsor the Public Health and Border Security Act of 2022, intended to block the Biden plan.
Morrisey said on Friday, “This irresponsible move by the Biden administration shows utter disregard for protecting our Southern Border. First Biden terminated the ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy, now it’s Title 42 — time and again this administration shows it has failed to act to protect our homeland.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it will terminate the Title 42 public health policy, which has been in effect since March 2020 and has been used by both the Trump and Biden administration to turn away thousands of migrants to try and keep communicable diseases out of the country.
The attorneys general filing the suit argue that revoking the policy violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) as it is arbitrary and capricious, and the Biden administration did not conduct the statutorily required notice and comment process.
Revoking Title 42 will create a surge at the southern border, and it will overwhelm law enforcement agencies and non-governmental organizations as well, they said.
Morrisey’s press release says that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates that getting rid of Title 42 could result in as many as 18,000 migrants per day showing up at the southern border — which could mean 540,000 migrants in a single month.
The attorneys general are asking a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana to force the Biden administration to keep Title 42 in place until it conducts the notice and comment period required under the APA and adopts a policy that is not arbitrary and capricious.
Arizona led the suit, also joined by Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming.
TWEET David Beard @dbeardtdp
EMAIL dbeard@dominionpost.com
