By MORGAN LEE, GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO and REBECCA SANTANA
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Suspense mounted at the U.S. border with Mexico on Tuesday about the future of restrictions on asylum-seekers as the Supreme Court issued a temporary order to keep pandemic-era limits on migrants in place.
Conservative-leaning states won a reprieve — though it could be brief — as they push to maintain a measure that allows officials to expel asylum-seekers. In a last-ditch written appeal to the Supreme Court, they argued that increased numbers of migrants would take a toll on public services such as law enforcement and health care and warned of an “unprecedented calamity” at the southern border.
Chief Justice John Roberts granted a stay pending further order, asking the administration of President Joe Biden to respond by 5 p.m. Tuesday. That’s just hours before restrictions are slated to expire on Wednesday.