The Biden administration on Saturday lifted its restrictions on the arrest of immigrants to comply with a court ruling that took effect over the weekend, leaving deportation agents in the United States without any official instructions on which immigrants should and should not detain.
In September 2021, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) agents to arrest immigrants believed to pose a threat to public safety or national security, and migrants who had recently crossed illegal U.S. border.
Immigration and Customs officials interrogate and detain undocumented immigrants during a traffic stop after an early morning surveillance, Wednesday, January 8, 2020. Eamon Quinn / About The Washington Post via Getty Images
The rules, part of the Biden administration’s broader efforts to restructure ICE’s immigration enforcement functions, generally protect unauthorized immigrants who arrive in the United States before November 2020 from arrest and deportation if they have not committed serious crimes.
But Republican officials in Texas and Louisiana earlier this month persuaded a federal judge to overturn Majorca’s rules on the premise that he had no authority to issue them. U.S. Judge Drew Tipton, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, also said Majorca’s note had been entered incorrectly.
Tipton agreed to suspend his decision to give the administration time to appeal, and the Department of Justice asked the Fifth District Court of Appeal to suspend his order. But the appeals court did not rule on the government’s request before Tipton overturned the suspension of his decision on Saturday morning.
In a statement to CBS News on Saturday, the US Department of Homeland Security said it “strongly” disagreed with Tipton’s order, but that it was carrying it out.
“During the appeal process, ICE agents and staff will decide on enforcement on a case-by-case basis in a professional and responsible manner, informed by their experience as law enforcement officials and in a way that best protects against the biggest threats to the homeland, “the ministry said.
While the suspension of the ICE Arrest Priority Scheme is unlikely to put approximately 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the country at immediate risk of arrest, the lack of national standards could lead to inconsistent law enforcement action in the United States, including arrests of immigrants agents were instructed in advance not to detain, legal experts said.
Muzafar Chishti, a senior fellow at the non-partisan Institute for Migration Policy, said ICE agents would still have the discretion of law enforcement to decide whether to make arrests. But he said agents would no longer be barred by national rules from arresting immigrants the Biden administration was trying to prevent from deportation.
Without national rules, Chishti said, there is likely to be significant “variation” in the way ICE’s various offices make arrests. ICE staff in Atlanta, for example, could try to increase arrests, he added.
“People in jurisdictions that have been more prone to law enforcement in the past should be more afraid than those in jurisdictions that have a more balanced approach to enforcement,” said Chishti, who heads the New York Institute for Migration Policy’s office. .
Representatives of ICE and DHS did not provide further details on how agents would decide whether to make arrests in the absence of enforcement priorities.
The memorandum, which was suspended over the weekend, is part of a series of rules issued by the Biden administration to curb groups of immigrants subject to ICE arrests inland. Under President Biden, ICE was generally instructed to avoid detaining families with children, pregnant or lactating women, victims of serious crime, and U.S. military veterans.
The Biden administration has also lifted large-scale ICE arrests in the workplace and expanded the list of so-called “protected areas” where deportation agents generally should not arrest immigrants to include disaster areas, gathering places for children and establishments. for social services.
Mr Biden’s appointees say the policy changes allow ICE’s 6,000 deporting agents to use their limited resources to arrest immigrants who threaten public safety or national security. However, Republicans have condemned the rules as too restrictive and say they encourage illegal immigration.
The ruling blocking ICE’s priorities is the latest judicial victory for conservative states trying to thwart Mr Biden’s immigration and border policies.
Through numerous lawsuits, Texas and other Republican-led states have forced the administration to lift the 100-day moratorium on deportations, close the Child Arrivals Program (DACA) for new candidates, and revive Trump-era policies that require migrants. to await their asylum hearings in Mexico.
In May, a federal judge granted a request from more than 20 Republican-led states and ordered the Biden administration to continue using Mr. Public Health’s first-time public health law to quickly expel some migrants from the U.S. border. Mexico. The administration argues that the emergency policy, known as Title 42, is no longer needed to control COVID-19.
More Camilo Montoya-Galves
Camilo Montoya-Galves is an immigration reporter for CBS News. Based in Washington, DC, it reflects immigration and policy.
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