A US Border Patrol agent speaks to immigrants blocked from entering a high-traffic illegal border crossing area along Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas on December 20, 2022 as viewed from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered 400 Texas National Guard troops and state police to the US-Mexico border in El Paso, which is under a state of emergency due to a surge of migrants crossing from Mexico into the city. Photo: VCG

The US government's two-year-old policy of invoking COVID-19 precautions to turn away hundreds of thousands of migrants at the Mexican border will remain in place, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The decision to uphold the controversial rule known as Title 42 delayed a looming political crisis for President Joe Biden, as thousands waited at the border in expectation the policy was about to end.

But the conservative-dominated high court accepted a petition from 19 states warning of a surge of migrants should the policy introduced under former president Donald Trump in March 2020 be lifted as ordered by a lower court.

The Supreme Court said Title 42, which allows the swift expulsion even of people who might qualify for asylum, would remain in place pending its ruling, and that it would hear the case in February.

"The states contend that they face an immigration crisis at the border and policymakers have failed to agree on adequate measures to address it," the court said in its 5-4 ruling.

"The only means left to mitigate the crisis, the states suggest, is an order from this Court directing the federal government to continue its COVID-era Title 42 policies as long as possible."

The ruling could give the Biden administration, which had conceded that Title 42 was wrong and prepared for a surge of asylum-seeking migrants, until May or June before a final decision.

Departing the White House for vacation Tuesday night, Biden told reporters that ending Title 42 was "overdue," but the administration would heed the court's decision until a final ruling is made, likely in June.

"In the meantime, we have to enforce it," Biden said.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier in the day the administration would prepare for the next hearing.

"We are advancing our preparations to manage the border in a secure, orderly, and humane way when Title 42 eventually lifts," Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

"Title 42 is a public health measure, not an immigration enforcement measure, and it should not be extended indefinitely." 

"To truly fix our broken immigration system, we need Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform," she said.

Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy said that removing Title 42 "would have made our border crisis worse, and the White House seemed willing to let that happen."

"Glad to see the Supreme Court step in to preserve it, but we need a permanent solution," he said on Twitter.

While the government had prepared for the end of Title 42 with more staffing and more fencing along the border, it was not clear how it would have stemmed an expected surge.

Some 2.5 million people were intercepted while trying to cross the southern US border in the 12 months through November.

While two years ago most of the migrants were from Mexico and El Salvador, now more than half come from much further away - from Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba, Eastern Europe and Asia.

Ballooning migrant numbers at the border pose an increasing political headache for Biden and his Democratic Party, whom the Republicans have repeatedly sought to paint as soft on illegal immigration.

AFP