In immigration news, Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday temporarily blocked an order allowing the Biden administration to end its disputed immigration policy on Wednesday under section 42 of Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations. This policy was originally implemented by the Trump administration to allow immigration authorities to expel asylum seekers without due process, citing public health reasons due to the pandemic. Roberts gave until Tuesday afternoon for the Biden administration to respond to emergency appeals filed by several Republican-led states aimed at challenging the end of the measure. This policy has been in effect since March 2020 and has been used to expel more than two million migrants trying to enter the country through the US-Mexico border, thereby preventing them from seeking asylum. Thousands of migrants forced to wait in Mexico hope that when the policy expires this week, they will finally be allowed to enter the United States safely to apply for asylum. Those were the words of Emily Rivas, an asylum seeker from Venezuela who was stranded in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, a city located across the border from the city of El Paso, in the state of Texas.

Emily Rivas: “Please, the president’s heart is softened and let everyone who is here because we have suffered a lot, we have suffered a lot since we left Venezuela, the forests, all the countries that we have been through, and from I really ask you, from the bottom of my heart, to give us a chance to graduate.”