Even one-third of DEMOCRATS want Title 42 to stay as new poll reveals 55% of Americans are in favor of keeping the migration restriction in place after a federal judge ruled the Biden administration could not end it

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More than half of Americans want pandemic-era Title 42 to remain in place after the Biden administration's attempt to drop the migration policy was blocked by a federal judge on Friday.

The Politico-Harvard survey from the T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that 55 percent of Americans oppose ending the policy while 45 percent are in favor of getting rid of it.

Title 42, enacted under Donald Trump in March 2020, stopped 1.7 million illegal immigrants since the start of the pandemic.

Republicans say the public health rule has helped quell the southern border crisis while President Joe Biden's policies have failed to do so. But Democrats and immigration advocates claim use of the order to expel migrants seeking asylum is illegal.

In the survey taken May 6-9, 64 percent of Democrats said they want Title 42 to end while more than one-third at 36 percent oppose the end of the policy. Republicans had a much larger split with only 19 percent in favor of ending the policy and a whopping 81 percent insisting Title 42 must stay in place.

Forty-eight percent of Americans identifying as independent want to end the policy and 52 percent want to keep it.

The poll was taken two weeks before a federal judge in the Western District of Louisiana ruled on a temporary stay for Biden's end to Title 42 restrictions after a lawsuit was filed and signed on by two dozen Republican-led states.

Title 42, which is an immigration restriction power that falls under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was supposed to end on Monday, May 23, 2022 after the agency said it was no longer needed.

Republicans immediately argued that the health-related policy should stay in place – at least as long as there is still a declared public health emergency in the U.S. They also claim it is one of the only remaining protections that is stopping the southern border crisis from getting exponentially worse.

While Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has encountered more than 2.7 million migrants at the southern border, 1.7 million have been expelled under Title 42.

Fifty-five percent of Americans say they oppose President Joe Biden ending Title 42 with even 36% of Democrats agreeing and a whopping 81% of Republicans in favor of keeping the measure

Migrants expelled under Title 42 walk from the U.S. toward Mexico at the Paso del Norte International border bridge in Ciudad Juarez, Mexcio on Saturday

Title 42 is a migration restriction policy that allows for instant expulsion without hearing asylum claims during a public health emergency. Pictured: Migrants stand next to the border as a Border Patrol agent takes a head count in Eagle Pass, Texas on Saturday, May 21, 2022

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials made 234,088 stops on the Mexican border in April, a new high for the Biden administration and an overall 22-year high and a 5.8% increase from the 221,303 encounters in March

Humans Rights First found that of those expelled back to Mexico under the law, 10,200 of them – or 0.006 percent – have been kidnapped, raped, tortured or violently attacked.

The Biden administration said Friday it disagrees with the ruling by Louisiana federal Judge Robert Summerhays blocking them from ending Title 42. The Justice Department announced it will appeal the decision.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the authority to make decisions on public health policy nationally 'should rest with the CDC, not with a single district court.

Judge Summerhays, a Trump appointee, granted a preliminary injunction on the Biden administration's move to end the restriction in response to lawsuits from two dozen Republican states, led by Arizona, Louisiana and Missouri.

Summerhays previously said he would rule on the matter before Monday when the restriction was set to expire.

Judge Robert Summerhays of the Western District of Louisiana (pictured April 11, 2018) granted a preliminary injunction Friday on the Biden administration's move to end Title 42 following a lawsuit filed by two dozen Republican-led states

The states claim the CDC is violating the Administrative Procedures Act because they did not provide a notice-and-comment period for the plan to lift Title 42. The law also bars moves that are deemed 'arbitrary and capricious.'

The plaintiffs also claim the Biden administration failed to account for the added cost to the states – especially border states – of more migrants being allowed into the U.S.

Biden's team stressed in its arguments that the CDC has the authority to end Title 42 because it is a public health order, not an immigration order.

Jean-Pierre said the administration 'disagrees' with the ruling, and said the executive had the prerogative to end the program.

'The Administration disagrees with the court's ruling, and the Department of Justice has announced that it will appeal this decision. The authority to set public health policy nationally should rest with the Centers for Disease Control, not with a single district court,' she said.

'However, in compliance with the court's injunction, the Biden Administration will continue to enforce the CDC's 2020 Title 42 public health authority pending the appeal. This means that migrants who attempt to enter the United States unlawfully will be subject to expulsion under Title 42, as well as immigration consequences such as removal under Title 8.'

She said DHS will 'continue planning for the eventual lifting of Title 42 in light of CDC's public health judgment, at which point anyone who attempts to enter the country unlawfully will be subject to Title 8 Expedited Removal proceedings, if they do not have grounds to remain in the United States.'    

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials have told the Biden administration they will quickly run out of funding to process the influx of migrants once Title 42 expires, and internal documents show they could need as much as $2 billion. 

DHS has already said it could face up to 18,000 migrant encounters along the southern border per day once Title 42 expires, more than double the current rate of 7-8,000 and more than triple the DHS' operational capacity of 5,000 per day. 

A Louisiana federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Biden administration from ending Title 42, the CDC public health order border agents rely on to turn migrants away. Immigrants walk through a gap in the U.S.-Mexico border barrier on May 19, 2022 in Yuma, Arizona

Arizona attorney general Mark Brnovich announced this news on Twitter

And head of next week's planned end of Title 42, migrants were seen pouring in through the gaps in the U.S.-Mexico border wall and lining up to be taken in for processing in photos taken Thursday. 

Title 42, the pandemic-era public health rule that restricts immigration, is set to end Monday. 

Currently DHS is operating on $1.4 billion appropriated from Congress to handle the record number of border encounters and is planning to pull funding from other parts of the agency to handle the influx. 

According to internal planning documents reviewed by NBC News, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will soon have exhausted all resources, and officials are pushing the Biden administration to ask Congress for a supplemental funding bill. 

According to internal planning, DHS would need an additional $1.2 billion in funds if border crossings reach 10,000 per day, $1.6 billion for 14,000 crossings a day and $2 billion for 18,000 per day. 

DHS officials told NBC that they've expressed the need for more funding in meetings with the White House, including one late last week and one early this week.  

As of the beginning of this month, more than 1.9 million people have been expelled under Title 42 since April 2020, most of them under the Biden administration. 

Border Patrol agents encountered 234,000 unlawful crossings in April, a new record high, and about 41 percent of the encounters ended in a Title 42 expulsion. Some of those crossings were repeat offenders. 

About 97,000 were expelled under Title 42 and 110,000 were released into the U.S., according to Biden administration data. 

Another 15,000 were expelled under Title 8, a U.S. immigration policy used when migrants who try to cross unlawfully cannot establish any legal basis for being in the country. DHS has said it will expand use of Title 8 once Title 42 is gone. 

President Biden will be in Japan when the border policy is expected to expire, in his first trip to Asia as president.  He was under intense pressure from progressives tp end the pandemic-era restriction, but some Democrats, particularly those up for re-election in swing districts, have called on the president to delay the policy's end until he's come up with a more thought-out plan. 

Meanwhile, Sec. of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has assured that his agency is prepared for the influx of migrants should the court allow Title 42 to be revoked. 

Immigrants wait to board a U.S. Border Patrol bus to be taken for processing after crossing the border from Mexico on May 19, 2022 in Yuma, Arizona

A U.S. Border Patrol agent hands bags for personal articles to immigrants, as they prepare to enter a Border Patrol vehicle to be taken for processing after crossing the border from Mexico, on May 19, 2022 in Yuma, Arizona

In April he released a 20-page memo detailing a six-part strategy to handle the onslaught of migrants after Title 42 ends, including expanding processing capacity, detaining, deporting and prosecuting more migrants and surging personnel and resources to the border. 

Mayorkas, in his 10th trip to the border this week, insisted that the nation's perimeter will not be 'open' without Title 42. 

'It is very important to note that while, of course, we are preparing for the end of Title 42 based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's decision that it will end on May 23, that does not mean that the border is open beginning May 23,' Mayorkas insisted.

'We continue to enforce the laws of this country,' he added. 'We continue to remove individuals who do not qualify for relief under the laws of this country.'

An immigrant father from Colombia holds his child after crossing the border from Mexico, as they await processing by the U.S. Border Patrol, on May 19, 2022 in Yuma, Arizona

An immigrant mother from Cuba sits with her sons after crossing the border from Mexico, as they await processing by the U.S. Border Patrol, on May 19, 2022 in Yuma, Arizona

Last month's 234,088 encounters were a 5.8 percent increase from the month prior where encounters reached 221,303. The March figure was the highest since July 2021 when encounters were at 213,593.

The last few months have seen massive spikes as migrants head to the U.S. border in preparation for the end of Title 42, which is a pandemic-era policy that allows for instant expulsions without the immigration agencies hearing asylum claims in the midst of a public health emergency.