MORGANTOWN – The fate of the Title 42 immigration policy remains up in the air as proponents and opponents await U.S. Supreme Court Action.

Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito had both celebrated that Chief Justice John Roberts had put a pause on Title 42 expiring on Wednesday, Dec. 21, but the Biden administration still wants to end it.

Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday issued the order pausing the expiration of the policy pending further court action, and gave the Department of Justice until 5 p.m. Tuesday to respond.

The order came in response to an emergency appeal led by Arizona and joined by 18 states, including West Virginia, to keep Title 42 in place. Their appeal followed a decision issued last Friday by the Washington, D.C., appeals court to reject an effort to extend the policy. Neighbor states Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia also signed on.

The Hill reported at 6 p.m. Tuesday that the Biden administration asked Roberts to rule against the states.

The Biden administration acknowledged on Tuesday that Title 42 was created in response to the pandemic and is no longer valid, The Hill reported.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Preolgar told Roberts, “The government recognizes that the end of the Title 42 orders will likely lead to disruption and a temporary increase in unlawful border crossings. The government in no way seeks to minimize the seriousness of that problem. But 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.”

Manchin and Capito celebrated Roberts’ order on Monday.

Manchin said, “There is an immigration crisis at our southern border that is unlike anything we have ever seen. While I am pleased by Chief Justice Roberts’ order that will avert a disaster temporarily, it is not a permanent solution. I am committed to working with my bipartisan colleagues to ensure Congress and the Biden Administration work together to find a comprehensive and bipartisan immigration solution.”

Capito said, “I’m pleased that the Supreme Court has temporarily prevented Title 42 from ending on Wednesday. We are not prepared for the number of migrants who would cross our southern border without this tool.”

Last week, Manchin joined with a GOP senator and two Congressmen from both sides of the aisle in a letter to Biden urging him to keep Title 42 in place.

They wrote, “We have a crisis at our southern border. Never before in our nation’s history have we experienced this scope and scale of illegal border crossings, and we remain concerned that your administration has not provided sufficient support or resources to the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who are tasked with maintaining border security.”

They continued, “We are committed to enacting bipartisan legislation that will allow DHS to effectively implement policies and programs that have been revealed as critical to maintaining operational control over the southern border, and do not involve paroling large numbers of migrants into the United States to undergo months- or years-long processes. These negotiations will take time. In the interim, we urge you to do everything within your power to extend the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC’s) Title 42 order beyond the looming Dec. 21 deadline until Congress can act.”

They told Biden that while Title 42 isn’t perfect, ending it “will result in a complete loss of operational control over the southern border, a profoundly negative impact on border communities, and significant suffering and fatalities among the migrants unlawfully entering the United States.”

They are concerned, they said, that DHS has not outlined a viable plan to maintain operational control of the southern border.