The United States Supreme Court announced on December 27 that it had decided to extend the "Article 42 Border Clause", which was scheduled to expire on December 21. U.S. border officials could continue to expel immigrants from other countries on the grounds of the COVID-19 epidemic. The Biden government said it would abide by the judgment.
According to the Associated Press on the 28th, this policy came into force for the first time in March 2020, and was announced by the then US President Trump, allowing the US border law enforcement agencies to expel US border refugees without any judicial procedures during the COVID-19 epidemic. Once the policy was introduced, it was blamed by the Democratic Party and human rights organizations. Opponents believed that banning the entry of refugees would further lead to a humanitarian disaster.
Since then, the United States has expelled immigrants trying to enter the border for more than two years. As of September 30 this year, US border patrols had arrested and detained more than 2.2 million immigrants at the southwest border, setting a record, and nearly half of the arrested immigrants had been deported.
In April this year, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that it was no longer necessary to control the epidemic through the "Article 42 Border Clause". The Biden government had planned to cancel the policy, but it was blocked by a judge in Louisiana, the United States. At that time, the policy was ruled to continue to take effect. In November this year, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. said that the "Article 42 Border Clause" must be terminated. The Biden government agreed to stop the policy on December 21. At the same time, the dispute over the "Article 42 Border Clause" was also brought to the United States Supreme Court.
The reservation of the "Article 42 Border Clause" has aroused controversy in the United States. The Associated Press said that Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator from Louisiana, said that canceling the "Article 42 Border Clause" would make the border crisis in the United States worse. The founder of a non-profit immigration assistance organization in Texas said that thousands of immigrants were short of food and clothing and had to live in cardboard boxes and temporary tents.