WASHINGTON, D.C. — Questions continue to swirl about the end of Title 42, the controversial public health measure President Joe Biden wants to end on Monday.

A ruling from a federal judge in the coming days could, however, keep it in place.

WHAT IS AT STAKE?

Title 42 is the pandemic public health policy that immediately expelled over a million asylum-seeking migrants during the pandemic.

Former President Donald Trump initially put the policy in place and it has continued into the Biden presidency.

Data has shown the migrants turned away over the last several years were primarily from Mexico, although they also came from other places in Central America, like Guatemala and Honduras.

Individuals from Caribbean nations like Haiti were also reportedly turned away as were some from European countries like Belarus.

Human rights groups believe the U.S. should be accommodating to those seeking persecution from other countries.

U.S. law requires the United States to accept refugees who have "well-founded" fears of persecution.

Opponents are arguing this is going to create a mass migration mess at the border and that the country is not prepared to handle the influx of migrants.

WAITING ON COURT RULING

The country is waiting on District Court Judge Robert Summerhays to rule on whether the Biden administration can end the policy.

It's possible Summerhays rules in favor of Republican attorneys general who brought the lawsuit. Summerhays has previously ruled in favor of conservatives on consequential issues.

No matter what the Trump appointee decides, an appeal is likely.

ARE WE READY?

If the judge allows Biden to end Title 42, the logical question is whether the U.S. is prepared for what could happen at the border.

Republicans and some Democrats believe there needs to be a better plan.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as well as Border Patrol, has told reporters they are prepared.

"The Secretary and I have had the opportunity to meet with our front line officers, agents and our workforce to ensure that we are prepared for May 23^rd and beyond," U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said Tuesday during a border event with DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

DHS has worked to mobilize staff and volunteers to the border in anticipation of a surge of asylum-seeking migrants when Title 42 ends.

Temporary facilities have been promised to be built as well.

Currently, around 8,000 people a day show up at America's borders. The Department of Homeland Security has said that it is preparing for the possibility of 18,000 each day once the measure is lifted.

File video above: U.S. preps for rising migration when Title 42 ends

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Title 42 — a controversial rule that's allowed U.S. authorities to expel more than 1 million migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.

Tuesday's court order leaves the Biden administration without one of the key tools it had deployed to address the thousands of migrants arriving at the border on a daily basis and could restore access to asylum for arriving migrants.

While the rule was drafted by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration has relied heavily on it to manage the increase of migrants at the border.

District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington, D.C., found the Title 42 order to be "arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act."

Prior to Title 42, all migrants arrested at the border were processed under immigration law. Thousands of migrants sent back to Mexico have been waiting along the border in shelters. Officials have previously raised concerns about what the end of Title 42 may portend, given limited resources and a high number of people trying to enter the country.

CNN has reached out to the White House, Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security for comment.

Sullivan faulted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which issued the public health order, for "its decision to ignore the harm that could be caused" by issuing the policy. He said the CDC also failed to consider alternative approaches, such as letting migrants self-quarantine in homes of US-based friends, family, or shelters. The agency, he said, should have reexamined its approach when vaccines and tests became widely available.

"With regard to whether defendants could have 'ramped up vaccinations, outdoor processing, and all other available public health measures,'... the court finds the CDC failed to articulate a satisfactory explanation for why such measures were not feasible," Sullivan wrote.

The judge also concluded that the policy did not rationally serve its purpose, given that COVID-19 was already widespread throughout the United States when the policy was rolled out.

"Title 42 was never about public health, and this ruling finally ends the charade of using Title 42 to bar desperate asylum seekers from even getting a hearing," American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt, who argued the case, said in a statement.

The injunction request came from the ACLU, along with other immigrant advocacy groups, and involves all demographics, including single adults and families. Unaccompanied children were already exempt from the order.

The public health authority was invoked at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and has been criticized by immigrant advocates, attorneys and health experts who argue it has no health basis and puts migrants in harm's way.

Sullivan had previously blocked the Biden administration from expelling migrant families with children apprehended at the US-Mexico border.

Earlier this year, the CDC announced plans to terminate the order. The CDC said at the time it's no longer necessary given current public health conditions and the increased availability of vaccines and treatments for COVID-19.

But in May, a federal judge in Louisiana blocked the Biden administration from ending Title 42.

Since that court order, the administration has continued to rely on Title 42 and most recently, expanding it to include Venezuelan migrants who have arrived at the US southern border in large numbers.

The U.S. Supreme Court will allow Title 42 to remain in place indefinitely, causing potentially millions of asylum seekers to wait before entering the U.S.

The pandemic-era rule put in place by then-President Donald Trump was intended to stop the spread of COVID-19. In the years since, asylum seekers have generally been required to wait in Mexico.

The Biden administration had planned to end the rule as the U.S. relaxes COVID-19 protocols. But 19 Republican-led attorneys general argued that the order should remain in place.

The Supreme Court ordered in a 5-4 decision to keep the rule in place until a February 2023 hearing. A decision on Title 42 could still take months.

In anticipation of Title 42's end, the Department of Homeland Security deployed additional resources to the border to handle a potential influx of migrants seeking to enter the U.S.

Homeland Security has said it has quickly removed several million asylum seekers due to the rule. If not for the rule, asylum seekers would be allowed to remain in the U.S. until given a court hearing to rule on the merits of their request.

Although five Republicans voted in concert to review the state's case, Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the dissenting opinion.

"The States may question whether the government followed the right administrative steps before issuing this decision (an issue on which I express no view). But they do not seriously dispute that the public-health justification undergirding the Title 42 orders has lapsed," Gorsuch wrote. "And it is hardly obvious why we should rush in to review a ruling on a motion to intervene in a case concerning emergency decrees that have outlived their shelf life."

TIJUANA, Mexico -- Just after sunrise, the rust-colored border wall looks like a snake separating two lands.

For months, migrants have been traveling toward the United States with the hope of seeking a better life. Normally people can present themselves at the U.S. point of entry to request asylum if they’re fleeing from danger. Then they go through a process of having their case heard to see if it’s legitimate. However, current U.S. laws make it nearly impossible for migrants to seek asylum – leaving them stuck at the border.

Esperanza Encampment is the name of the migrant encampment at El Chaparral point of entry. According to Border Angels -- a nonprofit that advocates for human rights -- more than 2,000 people are living there with about eight new families arriving per day. Most of them are fleeing dangerous situations so very few of them feel safe showing their face on camera. One woman willing to show her face is Jessy. We are not sharing her last name for her protection. She left Honduras with two of her kids because their lives were threatened by gang members.

“The gang members entered our apartment and tied us up… they put our kids in danger and gave us three days to leave," Jessy said. "We had to flee from there, from the colony, because they wanted us to pay them 10,000 pesos." (In Spanish: "Las maras entraron a esto apartamento y nos amararron…pusieron a nuestros hijos en peligro y nos dieron tres días para que saliéramos. Huyéndose a que nos salieron de allí, de la colonia, porque querían que les pagáramos diez mil pesos.”)

Jessy says her kids have experienced a lot of trauma.

"My daughter actually had to go to therapy because they put a gun to her head when she was little…she was only 6 years old," Jessy said. "Truth is, it was very bad so we had to leave in a hurry." (In Spanish: Mi niña de hecho tuvo que estar en psicología porque a ella la pusieron la pistola en la cabeza y estaba pequeña…solo tenía seis años. La verdad, fue bien terrible y por eso nosotros teníamos que salir huyendo.”)

They’ve been at Esperanza Encampment for nearly 40 days.

“They're so close to the U.S. and yet still so far on their journey. So, um, I can't describe it in any other way except heartbreaking,” Border Angels executive director Dulce Garcia said.

Border Angels has been supporting the migrants with supplies.

“There’s still a need for food," Garcia said. "Ya know, basic things – food, tarp, blankets.”

Walking around the camp, Garcia shows us how the migrants have formed their own community. They have cooks, security guards and teachers for the kids.

Throughout the day, different church groups and other humanitarian organizations drop off food or something to drink. However, there’s still a huge need for drinkable water. Jessy says many kids have been getting sick.

"The majority of the camp has gotten sick," Jessy said. "The majority in the camp have the flu. They have coughs; most of the kids carry on like this.” (In Spanish: “La mayoría en el campamento se han enfermado. La mayoría en el campamento tienen gripa. Tienen tos, la mayoría de los niños andan todo así.")

These people say they're here because they’re desperate: fleeing political persecution, gang violence, domestic violence and some have lost their homes in hurricanes.

“The forces that are pushing people to leave their home countries have continued and have actually gotten worse with the pandemic,” Human Rights First legal fellow Julia Neusner said.

Human Rights First is an advocacy and action organization. Neusner has been documenting the stories of migrants for a report on a U.S. code that is keeping these migrants at the border.

“Because of Title 42, the border has been closed completely to asylum seekers completely since March 2020,” Neusner said.

Neusner says Title 42 is a rarely used U.S. law that gives government authority to exclude anybody who poses a public health risk to people in the United States. The Trump administration put it into place at the start of the pandemic. The Biden administration has yet to lift it.

“One of the first questions this woman asked us last night was 'how long is this going to take? How long do I have to wait here?' And the answer is, we don't know,” Garcia said.

Garcia says part of the reason there are so many people at the border now is because many have been given misinformation that Title 42 has been lifted.

“There are folks that prey on these people, and they tell them if you give me money, you're going to have your case heard,” Garcia said.

Now thousands of people are stuck in limbo hoping and praying for change.

“They're holding onto hope," Garcia said. "And that's why they camp has been renamed. Esperanza means 'hope' in Spanish. That's, that's all they have. Some of them literally, that's all they have.”

"The goal is that they get the border opened," Jessy said. "That they have compassion for us and let us in because while it is true that we are immigrants, we are not delinquents…We want to be able to work in the United States." (In Spanish: “La meta es que abran la frontera… que tengan compasión de nosotros y nos dejen entrar porque la verdad sí somos inmigrantes, pero no somos delinquentes...queremos ir y trabajar allí en los Estados Unidos”)