Convenience Big Store: Title 42 border policy won’t immediately end, Supreme Court rules

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In advance of the planned repeal of Title 42, Gov. Greg Abbott warned that "chaos" would come to the Texas-Mexico border, while the White House sent a record-number of agents to the area.

Pandemic-era border policy will remain in place for now, Supreme Court says

Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that required the Biden administration to let the public health order, known as Title 42, expire on Wednesday. The order came after GOP states filed an emergency appeal for the high court to step in, and gives the administration and states more time to make their arguments to the high court.

The order has been used to expel millions of migrants, and Republicans had warned that if the policy were allowed to end, it could spell chaos and confusion at the border.

The White House said it has dispatched 23,000 Border Patrol agents and 1,000 processing coordinators to the southern border, but Texas' GOP leaders, and some Democrats, said it wouldn't be enough.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, a South Texas Democrat, warned in a recent letter of a "complete loss of operational control over the southern border" if Title 42 were lifted this week.

"Are they prepared? No," Cuellar said in a CBS interview of federal border officials.

Edward McKinley
State Government Reporter
edward.mckinley@chron.com

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What We're Reading

• Abbott orders probe after 2 Dallas parolees with ankle monitors accused of murder (The Dallas Morning News)

• Oyster harvesters hit hard as Texas closes reefs for conservation and public health (The Texas Tribune)

• The Iranian-Texan Teaching Persian Through Protest (Texas Monthly)

• A boy just baptized. A girl who just had her Sweet 16. These are the stories of 12 children killed by guns this year. (The New York Times)

One last thing…

"Latina workers make 54 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men. It's past time that Latina workers are given equal pay for equal work," said U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Dec. 8, Latina Equal Pay Day.

Politifact rating: True. This year, for Latinas, the pay gap indeed was 54 cents on the dollar.