Texas Gov. Greg Abbott praised a federal judge's decision Friday blocking the suspension of Title 42 expulsions on the Mexican border.
“Another federal court announced today what we have known all along: President Biden is ignoring federal law with his open border policies," Abbott said in a statement. "While today’s court ruling rejecting President Biden’s ending of Title 42 expulsions is a positive development, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants remain at our southern border ready to flood into Texas. Texas will continue utilizing all available resources and strategies to prevent this mass illegal migration, including the deployment of Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas National Guard resources, the coordination with Mexican border governors, and the activation of the Joint Border Security Operations Center. We remain vigilant in fighting the lifting of Title 42 expulsions.”
U.S. District Judge Robert R. Summerhays of Louisiana granted a preliminary injunction on May 20 that stops the Biden administration from lifting Title 42, a pandemic regulation that has been used to quickly expel migrants at the southern border, the Houston Chronicle reported. Twenty one states sued to block the lifting of Title 42.
Texas had filed a separate suit against the Biden administration for attempting to lift Title 42, the state's attorney general, Ken Paxton, said in a news release. The lawsuit noted that more strict policies reduce the number of migrants that attempt to cross the border: "reducing the likelihood that an alien will be released into the United States reduces the number of aliens who attempt to enter the United States illegally."
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, there were more than 234,000 encounters in April.
The Latin American branch of the Coalition Against Trafficking In Women conducted a study that estimates that 60% of Latin American children "who set out to cross the border alone or with smugglers have been caught by the cartels and are being abused in child pornography or drug trafficking," the New York Post reported.