PHOENIX (AP) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has ended an unusual deal the Arizona Attorney General signed with the agency in the fall days of the Trump administration to try to restrict President Joe Biden’s ability to review its predecessor’s immigration policies.
The agency’s action was revealed Wednesday when Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, demanded that he stop confirming the newly confirmed Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to carry out the 100-day moratorium on Biden on deportations. A Texas federal judge has already suspended him.
“The Arizona police community is particularly concerned that aliens who have been charged or convicted of crimes are released as a result of the 100-day moratorium on DHS,” Brnovich said in the federal lawsuit.
He said authorities are also concerned “that the release of people during the COVID-19 pandemic will further stress hospitals and social services at the local and county level.”
Brnovich sued after a court order last month temporarily banning the U.S. government from applying a pause in deportations. His presentation revealed that Homeland Security canceled the immigration agreement he signed with the agency, which was among at least nine quietly signed with state and local jurisdictions during the last weeks of the Trump administration. .
The agreements state that jurisdictions are entitled to a 180-day consultation period before changes in executive policy take effect.
It is unclear what has happened to the agreements signed elsewhere. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
It comes the same week that a complaining complainant revealed that then-DHS Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli also reached last-minute agreements with a union for immigration and customs control employees.
The Government Accountability Project said in a whistleblower complaint filed Monday in Congress and two federal vigilantes that the labor agreements grant “extraordinary power and benefits” to the American Federation of Government Employees ICE Council 118, which represents about 7,500 employees and that endorsed Trump in 2016 and 2020.
In addition to improving economic benefits, the agreements give the union the power to delay changes in immigration enforcement policies and practices, according to the letter the Government Accountability Project filed on behalf of a federal employee not revealed.
The agreements will remain in effect for eight years, unless Homeland Security goes on to challenge them before Feb. 17, which is 30 days after Cuccinelli signed them.
“This abuse of authority is shocking,” wrote David Seide, the unidentified employee’s attorney, noting Cuccinelli’s “extraordinary involvement”.
“Clearly they are one more example of the previous administration’s effort in its dwindling hours to consolidate a legacy at the expense of taxpayers,” he said.
Cuccinelli said in an email that he did nothing wrong.
“With the advice and counseling of the General Council Office, I executed the appropriate agreements to finally address many of these issues that had not been previously resolved,” he said. “The best I can say, the main basis of the complaint is that I did my job well, much to the displeasure of the complainant.”
Biden national security leaders have not said whether they will decide to cancel the labor agreements.
The union official who signed them, Chris Crane, did not respond to requests for comment.
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Fox reported from Washington.
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