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Judge blocks Biden administration effort to curtail ICE arrests and deportation

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A Texas federal judge has blocked the Biden Administration’s efforts to limit immigration arrests to the criminally active illegal aliens.

The Biden Administration proposed a new set of rules that would require Immigration and Customs Enforcement to acquire supervisory approval before making arrests. The requirement was that ICE would focus on recent border crossers and immigrants that posed a threat to public or national safety.

U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, issued a nationwide preliminary injunction on the 19th halting the memos that entailed the new ICE rules. In his 160-page ruling, Tipton called the new priorities “suffocating” and said immigration arrests have declined sharply this year.

ICE deported 2,962 immigrants in April, according to the agency. It is the first time the monthly figure has dipped below 3,000, records show. The April total is a 20 percent decline from March, when ICE deported 3,716 (The Washington Post).

Many lesser criminals who might have been taken into immigration custody under the Trump administration are now being released into U.S. communities, the judge wrote, and many reoffend. He said the new priorities also likely violate federal law calling for the arrest of unauthorized immigrants, especially those who commit crimes.

Earlier this year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry filed the lawsuit over ICE arrests in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas. “Another Texas victory against Biden,” Paxton said in a tweet last week. “So far we are 4-0 against Biden & the Dems effort to break immigration laws. We must secure our border NOW!”

The Biden administration, which has nominated Sheriff Ed Gonzalez of Harris County, which includes Houston, to run ICE, has argued that the agency has always prioritized arresting criminals inside the United States. They stated that the guidelines were to ensure that officers focus on the most dangerous offenders, instead of arresting immigrants with minor offenses such as traffic violators as they had in the past.

Representatives for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not immediately respond to requests to comment on Thursday’s court order. The cases stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Texas and Missouri.

Last week, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Texas ordered the administration to reinstate President Trump’s policy on requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for the duration of their U.S. court proceedings. Though, Mexico has not made any efforts to support or decline those policies.

ARTICLE: CASSIE KENNEDY

MANAGING EDITOR: CARSON CHOATE
PHOTO CREDITS: CBS NEWS

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