(Bloomberg) -- Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked the scheduled ending of pandemic-era border restrictions while the US Supreme Court considers a bid by Republican state officials to keep the rules in place during a legal fight.

Roberts’ administrative order came just hours after the Arizona-led group filed its request. The so-called Title 42 restrictions had been scheduled to end Wednesday, and Roberts’ order gives the court more time to decide how to handle the case.

Roberts asked President Joe Biden’s administration to respond to the request by Tuesday at 5 p.m. Washington time, signaling the possibility of a quick decision. The states are also asking the Supreme Court to consider hearing an immediate appeal.

“No one reasonably disputes that the failure to grant a stay will cause a crisis of unprecedented proportions at the border,” the states argued in their filing Monday.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it will obey Roberts’ order and continue to expel people who try to cross into the country illegally.

“While this stage of the litigation proceeds, we will continue our preparations to manage the border in a safe, orderly, and humane way when the Title 42 public health order lifts,” the department said.

A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday had refused to keep the Title 42 restrictions in force, saying the 19 states waited too long to try to intervene in a two-year-old legal fight.

The Trump administration invoked Title 42 early in the pandemic to let officials turn away asylum-seekers and other migrants at the border. 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.

Immigrant families affected by the policy are challenging it. A federal district judge struck down the restrictions in November, saying they were “arbitrary and capricious.” 

Collusion Alleged

The Biden administration has taken a nuanced stance toward the expulsion policy. The Justice Department is appealing the district court’s order but not seeking to keep the restrictions in place in the meantime. 

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

The states blasted the administration’s approach, accusing officials of colluding with opponents of the Title 42 policy. The administration’s “calculated and strategic surrender thus attempts to achieve through collusion what could not be obtained through lawful rulemaking,” the states argued in Monday’s filing.

Republicans and some Democrats have urged Biden to retain the Title 42 restrictions, while immigrants’ rights advocates decry the continuation of a policy that blocks access to asylum for many people.

US officials recorded more than 2 million migrant encounters at the southern border in fiscal 2021, more than double the fiscal 2019 total. Title 42 was used to expel migrants more than 1 million times in 2021.

The GOP-led states say lifting the restrictions would require them to spend more money on law enforcement and social services. Justice Department lawyers have said the states lack standing to join the litigation.

The case is Arizona v. Mayorkas, 22A544.

(Updates with DHS statement in fourth and fifth paragraphs.)

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