A U.S. health care measure from the coronavirus era that allows states to deport or deport immigrants remains in effect for the time being. The US Supreme Court decided this on Tuesday, according to international news agencies. The controversial measure allows for the detention of undocumented immigrants on grounds of combating infectious diseases and public health risks. The measure actually expired last December 21st.

Arrangement, also known as Title 42, refers to a public health law from 1944 and introduced at the start of the coronavirus pandemic under then-President Donald Trump. Since the start of 2020, US authorities have evacuated 2.5 million people under the measure, which was initially thought to be temporary. Refugees who migrate from countries like Venezuela are immediately deported, leaving them unable to submit asylum applications. So many refugees have chosen to cross the US border illegally in recent years.

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‘No Covid Crisis’

The US Centers for Disease Control and CDC tried Title 42 As of April this year, it will no longer be required. Current President Joe Biden’s administration also wants to get rid of the measure. But a federal judge in Louisiana ruled in favor of nineteen Republican states because many southern states feared a wave of immigration. Another federal judge in Washington ruled in November that the measure should be struck down, and the Supreme Court has since taken it up. The court says it will hear the case again in February 2023 and rule in June. Until then, the pandemic measures will remain in force.

Opponents of the plan say the policy-based emergency is long overdue. Two of the four Supreme Court justices who voted for the repeal Title 42, write “The current migration crisis is not a Covid crisis”. Five justices voted for the measure. Aid organizations fear that the border policy would overwhelm reception centers and disrupt care for refugees.