The U.S. Supreme Court voted Tuesday to keep immigration policy Title 42 in place for the time being. The Trump-era directive restricts U.S.-Mexico border crossings on grounds of health crises. The high court justices are set to hear arguments again early in 2023.

The Supreme Court order keeps the controversial immigration policy in place, while the justices review the legal issues of the case. Oral arguments on Title 42 policy are set for February or March, making a final decision likely at the end of June.

Title 42 critics argue that the policy blocks people seeking asylum on grounds of persecution from entering the U.S.. They also claim that it is outdated, as coronavirus treatments have improved.

Immigration advocates sued to end the policy, saying it goes against American and international obligations to people fleeing to the U.S. to escape persecution. They’ve also argued that the policy is outdated as coronavirus treatments improve.

Advocates say that the measure is necessary, lest an increase in immigration place undue pressure on public services, especially in border states.

In November, a federal judge sided with advocates and set a Dec. 21 deadline to end the policy. Conservative-leaning states appealed to the Supreme Court, warning that an increase in migration would take a toll on public services and cause an “unprecedented calamity” that they said the federal government had no plan to deal with.

The Biden administration admitted that it was not prepared to deal with a massive influx of immigrants, should Title 42 expire.

The high court’s action spares the Biden administration from a court-ordered winding down of the policy, as both Republicans and Democrats warned that the U.S. wasn’t prepared to handle the likely influx of migrants who had been gathering along the U.S.-Mexico border. Administration officials have favored ending the public-health-based order, but have scrambled to finalize plans to deal with the anticipated surge. They have also been weighing policies to further restrict the number of migrants eligible for asylum in the U.S.

The Supreme court must now consider whether states have the right to intervene in the Federal Government’s efforts to end Title 42. The legal battle started in November, when a federal judge set a Dec. 21 expiration deadline for the policy and several conservative states asked the High Court to step in.

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