For Immediate Release
September 30, 2021
Contact: Lorena Bourdevaire
213-341-0478; lbcasillas@immdef.org
LOS ANGELES: Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) is disheartened to see the DC Circuit granted the Biden administration’s request for a stay of a lower court’s ruling blocking the expulsion of migrant families with children under Title 42 in Huisha-Huisha v Mayorkas. The administration has gone out their way to fight to continue expelling and turn away families seeking asylum after fleeing persecution in their birth countries under the Title 42 policy. The continued use of Title 42 is illegal and immoral and exposes thousands of refugees and asylum seekers to danger in the U.S.-Mexico border.
On Sept. 16 Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia did right by ruling that it was illegal to apply Title 42 to families seeking refuge at the U.S.-Mexico border. Rather than decide to restore the right to seek asylum, shortly after the Biden administration chose to appeal this decision and seek a stay. Today, the DC Circuit has granted that stay allowing for the government to continue implementing Title 42.
Once again, the Biden administration is demonstrating that they are actively fighting to evade international asylum law and turn away and expel vulnerable families like the 5,358 Haitian migrants they expelled from Del Rio from September 19-September 29.
“All President Biden needed to do to stop applying Trump’s Title 42 to families was not seek a stay or appeal, but they did. Expelling families with kids and other asylum seekers back to the dangerous countries they have fled with no due process is now a Biden policy, one that the Biden Administration fought hard to keep,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, Immigrant Defenders’ Co-Founder and Executive Director.
“The continued use of Title 42 under the guise of a health ordinance is as absurd as it is dangerous. The Biden administration is choosing to exacerbate the pain Haitians and other migrants have already endured in their countries and on their journey to the U.S. The government must reverse course and use their time wisely by focusing their efforts on restoring our asylum system,” said Joyce Noche, ImmDef’s Legal Services Director.
To build back better and welcome immigrants with dignity, Title 42 must end immediately, not only for families but for all immigrants.
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Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) is a next-generation social justice law firm that defends our immigrant communities against injustices in the immigration system. We envision a future where no immigrant will be forced to face an unjust immigration system alone. Our programs are a first step towards the long-term goal of providing universal representation to all immigrants facing deportation. ImmDef is the largest non‐profit, pro bono provider of deportation defense in Southern California with offices in Los Angeles, Adelanto, Riverside, Santa Ana, and San Diego.