Appeals court rejects GOP state attempt to keep Title 42 border policy in place

A federal appeals court rejected an attempt led by 19 Republican states to maintain Title 42, the public health policy used to quickly expel illegal migrants. 

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision from Friday means Title 42 will end on Dec. 21 unless more appeals are filed by that point, The Epoch Times reported. 

A federal judge last month ordered the Biden administration to no longer enforce Title 42, but one day later, District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan granted a Justice Department request to delay the first judge's order by five weeks, setting the new deadline for this Wednesday.

Nineteen GOP-led states intervened in the case in an effort to keep Title 42 in place, but the D.C. Appeals Court on Friday said the Republican coalition did not act quickly enough. 

"In this case, the inordinate and unexplained untimeliness of the States' motion to intervene on appeal weighs decisively against intervention," the judges wrote in an opinion obtained by Epoch. "Nowhere in their papers do [the states] explain why they waited eight to fourteen months to move to intervene."

Louisiana Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry, whose state was part of the lawsuit, said he plans on appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, the Associated Press reported.

After record numbers of migrants came to the southern border last year, authorities are bracing for an influx of migrants after Title 42 ends. El Paso declared a state of emergency while California Gov. Gavin Newsom is calling for the federal government to do more to assist his state.