WASHINGTON—Over the holidays, the Supreme Court granted a stay—that is, a suspension—sought by a consortium of states of a ruling by the DC federal district court striking down the policy of expelling illegal aliens at the border due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) had filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Court in favor of lifting the district court’s order.
Before the holiday break, the Supreme Court had issued a temporary stay of the district court’s injunction against COVID expulsions while it considered the states’ application. See IRLI December 20, 2022 Press Release. Then, after it so considered it, the Court agreed to review the question of whether the states could intervene, and issued a longer stay suspending the district court’s injunction until the Court decided that question. As a result, COVID expulsions continue.
“It is remarkable that the COVID-19 expulsion policy is still in place,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “The administration wants to end it, and now a DC activist court has struck it down for them. Only court actions, in which IRLI is proud to play a central role, have kept it going. In this latest one, we are pleased that the Supreme Court seemed to see the vast unlikelihood that the district court’s flawed and unprincipled ruling will survive appeal by the states, and suspended that ruling until it can decide the states’ appeal.”
The case is Arizona v. Mayorkas, No. 22A544 (Supreme Court).
