The efforts of Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to continue keeping Title 42 in place are delaying the passage of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill before a government shutdown.
Lee’s amendment to the bipartisan bill would cut funding for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s office unless the Biden administration reinstates the Trump-era policy, which allows Border Patrol agents to expel illegal aliens immediately without asylum processing if they are deemed to pose a health threat amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Nov. 16, a federal judge ruled that Title 42 was unlawful and ordered the Biden administration to end it by Dec. 21. However, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts recently halted the lower court’s order to end it after a slew of Republican states filed an emergency application seeking to reverse the lower court’s decision….