(Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration urged the Supreme Court to let pandemic-era border restrictions end, saying the justices should reject an effort by Republican state officials to intervene in a legal fight.

The filing comes a day after Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked Wednesday’s scheduled termination of the so-called Title 42 restrictions while the nation’s highest court considers the states’ bid for a longer delay.

Ending the policy could mean a surge of new crossings, potentially overwhelming the immigration system and creating what the 19 states on Monday called “a crisis of unprecedented proportions.” Although Title 42 is a public-health provision, many border hawks have come to view it as a necessary tool to manage record migrant encounters.

US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the court Tuesday the administration is prepared to use other immigration tools to address what is likely to be a “temporary” increase in illegal crossings.

“The solution to that immigration problem cannot be to extend indefinitely a public-health measure that all now acknowledge has outlived its public-health justification,” said Prelogar, the Biden administration’s top courtroom lawyer.

Prelogar asked the Supreme Court to leave Roberts’ temporary order in place for a few days to “allow an orderly transition.” She proposed that if the court acts before Dec. 23, it keep the stay in place until 11:59 p.m. Dec. 27. If the court denies the states’ request at a later date, it should keep Roberts’ pause in effect until the second business day following the order, Prelogar said.

The White House has asked Congress to provide $3.5 billion more in an end-of-year spending bill for immigration programs, including the Border Patrol and processing asylum requests. 

‘Extraordinary Horrors’

The Trump administration invoked Title 42 early in the pandemic to let officials turn away migrants at the border. Immigrant families affected by the policy are challenging it, telling the Supreme Court Tuesday the restrictions are subjecting people who can’t enter the US to assault, torture, rape and murder.

“The record in this case documents the truly extraordinary horrors being visited on noncitizens every day by Title 42 expulsions,” lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation argued for the group.

A federal district judge struck down the restrictions in November, saying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t adequately explain a departure from past policy. Then last week a federal appeals court in Washington set the stage for the policy to end when it said the states waited too long to intervene to help defend it. 

The Biden administration has taken a complicated stance toward the expulsion policy in its legal filings. The Justice Department appealed the district court’s order but isn’t seeking to keep the restrictions in place in the meantime. 

The GOP-led states called the administration’s approach a “calculated and strategic surrender.” The states say lifting the restrictions would require them to spend more money on law enforcement and social services. 

The administration is separately trying to end the policy through a rule issued in April by the CDC. A federal trial judge has blocked that effort, and the case is now before a different appeals court.

The case is Arizona v. Mayorkas, 22A544.

--With assistance from Jordan Fabian and Ellen M. Gilmer.

(Updates with excerpts from filings starting in fifth paragraph.)

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