“The Court vacates and sets aside the the Title 42 policy… and all orders and decision memos issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the US Department of Health and Human Services suspending the right to introduce certain persons into the United States,” US District Judge Emmet Sullivan said on Tuesday in a court order.
Sullivan called the Title 42 policy arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs the federal regulatory process.
Former US President Donald Trump used Title 42 to block entry to migrants seeking to enter the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. Title 42 cases are considered expulsions not deportations, meaning there is no hearing before an immigration judge prior to departure from the US.
The lawsuit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of asylum-seeking families against the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration and border control.
The order enjoins the department and its agencies from applying the Title 42 policy.
The court ruling comes following a decision by Texas Governor Greg Abbott earlier on Tuesday to invoke a constitutional clause to address a record-breaking influx of illegal immigration on the US-Mexico border.
The directive deploys National Guardsmen and state police officers to the border with the authority to arrest illegal migrants.
According to US Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol agents made 230,678 arrests of illegal migrants on the US southern border in October, which marks the start of fiscal year 2023. During the same period last year, nearly 165,000 arrests were made on the southern border.