HOUSTON (AP) – A federal judge on Tuesday banned the U.S. government from enforcing a 100-day deportation moratorium that is a key immigration priority for President Joe Biden.
U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton issued a temporary restraining order sought by Texas, which sued Friday against a note from the Department of Homeland Security instructing immigration agencies to stop most deportations. Tipton said the Biden administration could not “provide any concrete and reasonable justification for a 100-day break in deportations.”
Tipton’s order is an early blow to the Biden administration, which has proposed far-reaching changes sought by immigration advocates, including a plan to legalize approximately 11 million immigrants living illegally in the U.S. Biden promised during his campaign to stop most deportations for 100 days.
The order represents a victory for Texas Republican leaders, who often demanded to stop programs enacted by Biden’s Democratic predecessor, President Barack Obama. He also showed that just as Democratic-led states and immigration groups fought former President Donald Trump for immigration to the courts, often successfully, so will Republicans with Biden in charge. .
David Pekoske, the acting secretary of Homeland Security, signed a note on the first day of Biden to direct immigration authorities to focus on threats to national security and public safety, as well as any detainees who enter illegally in the US after November 1st. this made anyone in the US illegally a priority for deportation.
The 100-day moratorium went into effect Friday and applied to almost everyone who entered the United States without permission before November.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that the moratorium violated federal law, as well as an agreement Texas signed with the Department of Homeland Security at the end of the Trump administration. That agreement required Homeland Security to consult with Texas and other states before taking any action to “reduce, redirect, reprioritize, relax, or modify in any way the application of immigration.”
The Biden administration argued in court records that the agreement was not applicable because “an outgoing administration cannot contract that power for an incoming administration.” Meanwhile, Paxton’s office presented a Fox News opinion piece as evidence that “the refusal to eliminate illegal aliens leads directly to the immediate release of additional illegal aliens in Texas.”
Tipton, appointed by Trump, wrote that his order was not based on the agreement between Texas and the Trump administration, but on federal law to preserve the “status quo” before the DHS moratorium.
Paxton has defended conservative and far-right lawsuits in court, including a failed lawsuit seeking to overturn Biden’s victory over Trump, as he himself faces an FBI investigation into allegations of old maxims helpers abuse their office in the service of a donor.
In response to the order, Paxton tweeted “VICTORYRIA” and described the moratorium on deportation as a “seditious leftist insurrection,” an apparent reference to the Jan. 6 insurgency in which Trump supporters stormed. the Capitol. Five people were killed in the Capitol riots, including a Capitol Police officer.
Kate Huddleston, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, criticized Paxton and argued that her lawsuit should not be allowed to continue.
“The administration’s pause in deportations is not only legal, but also necessary to ensure that families are not separated and that people do not return to danger unnecessarily while the new administration reviews past actions,” he said. Huddleston in a statement.