A federal judge orders the Biden administration to block the release of migrants in the US for two weeks

U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell, an appointee of President Donald Trump, halted the Biden administration’s plan to begin releasing migrants with notices that they must report to an immigration office within 60 days when shelters reach 125% capacity reach, or where people are held for an average of 60 hours.

The quick releases would also be triggered when authorities stop 7,000 migrants along the border in a day.

A US official reported that daily encounters reached 10,000 on Tuesday – nearly twice the March level and only slightly below the 11,000 figure that authorities say is the upper limit of what they expect after Title 42 ends.

According to the latest publicly available data, the daily average in March was about 5,200.

The state of Florida argued that the administration’s plan was almost identical to another Biden policy that had previously been overturned in federal court.

Earlier Thursday, the Justice Department said its new move was in response to an emergency and would prevent it from “overwhelming the border and could pose serious health and safety risks to non-citizens and immigration officials.”

Weatherell blocked the releases for two weeks and scheduled a May 19 hearing on whether to renew his order.

Wetherell, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, has previously criticized a decision to stop building a border wall and end a policy of making asylum seekers in Mexico wait for hearings in the US immigration court.

He also accused the government of ending family detention at the border, a decision officials are now beginning to reconsider.

Wetherell’s language echoes Republican talking points blaming Biden for all the problems at the border.

Migrants walk to a bus station after being released from a shelter on the Texas-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas

A Border Patrol agent speaks to migrants after they disembark a bus at a processing facility in Brownsville, Texas, on Thursday

Migrants prepare to cross the Rio Grande on Thursday to try to enter the US

A wave of migrants is expected with the end of the US government’s Title 42 policy in the Covid era, which for the past three years has enabled the rapid expulsion of irregular migrants entering the country

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had already warned of even more crowded border security facilities.

Wetherell, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, has previously criticized a decision to stop building a border wall and end a policy of making asylum seekers in Mexico wait for hearings in the US immigration court

“I cannot stress enough the strain on our staff and facilities,” he told reporters on Thursday.

Even as migrants rushed to reach US soil before the rules expire, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said smugglers were sending a different message. He noted an increase in smugglers on his country’s southern border offering migrants to the United States, telling them the border was open from Thursday.

On Wednesday, Homeland Security announced a rule to make it extremely difficult for anyone traveling through another country, such as Mexico, or who has not applied online, to qualify for asylum. It also introduced GPS-tracked curfews for families released before the first US asylum inquiries.

The government says it is strengthening the removal of migrants deemed unfit to remain in the US on flights such as the one that brought nearly 400 migrants home from the US to Guatemala on Thursday.

Hours before Title 42 was lifted, hundreds of migrants lined up on US soil in Yuma to begin the asylum application process. The number has risen sharply in recent days