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Migrants who ​traveled to the United States border seeking asylum have lashed out at the Biden administration after a federal judge ordered that the Title 42 health policy be extended — and many frustrated by the long wait have decided to risk crossing the Rio Grande into Texas, according to reports. ​

“First they said they were going to open the border to asylum claims, then they said they weren’t,” Max Alexander Gonter, 24, ​told Reuters while sitting in a migrant shelter in Monterrey.

Gonter ​​told the wire service he has spent nearly two years waiting in Mexico to seek asylum after fleeing poverty and violence in his native Honduras.

“I can’t stand this anymore, I’m exhausted,” he said.

T​he Trump administration in 2020 adopted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s ​Title 42 policy that allowed immigration officials to immediately deport illegal immigrants to Mexico without first hearing their

Title 42, the controversial emergency public health order which has successfully expelled migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border for the last two years, is going to stay put — for now. 

The order, launched by the Trump administration at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, has continued throughout Biden’s presidency, despite his administration’s intentions and efforts to end it. 

Early last month, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that Title 42 would be over on May 23.

But on Friday, May 20, a Louisiana federal judge blocked the Biden administration from doing so. District Judge Robert R. Summerhays, who was appointed by Trump, ruled that the Biden administration violated administrative law in April when it announced its plan to end its use of the policy.

A  legal battle is already underway. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) quickly filed an appeal on Friday with the 5th U.S Circuit

Border Patrol agents used Title 42 to transport migrants found near Sasabe back to the U.S.-Mexico border, in this photo from March 2020, the early days of the order. More than 1.9 million people have since been turned back under Title 42, which will stay in place after a federal court blocked a plan to end it this week. (Photo by Jerry Glaser/U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

WASHINGTON – Supporters of Title 42, the pandemic-era health regulation used to turn away migrants at the border, welcomed the court ruling that blocked a Biden administration plan to pull the plug on the program Monday.

But migration advocates said the Friday ruling by a federal district judge in Louisiana will only prolong a “counterproductive” rule that has been an “outright failure” as a border policy.

“It is quite terrible as an immigration policy,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday announced $11.2 million for family planning funding in the state. 

In a tweet, Pritzker said the state has rejoined the federal Title X program, and “putting record funding” into the state’s Family Planning Program. 

“That means 29 agencies throughout the state will receive more than $11 million in state and federal funding,” the governor said. 

Pritzker said that funding means all Illinois residents will have access to family planning services, regardless of their income. 

The governor held a news conference around noon Monday about the funding. He said a $5.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services combined with $5.8 million in state general revenue funds will be used to support Title X services across the state. The

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday said holding up a COVID-19 relief bill as a way to demand a vote on Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic public health policy that allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border and prevents them from seeking asylum, is “blackmail,” but she appeared open to the notion of Congress holding a vote on the controversial measure.

The comments came after Senate Republicans in early April blocked the upper chamber from advancing a $10 billion COVID-19 bill after Democrats refused to vote on an amendment that called for blocking the Biden administration from rescinding Title 42.

An increasing number of Senate Democrats, however, are becoming more open to holding a vote on the controversial policy. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) last week said “there’s a growing willingness to bring that up and have the amendment votes necessary to get it to a final vote.”