U.S. District Court Judge Drew Tipton said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas did not have the authority to issue a September 2021 note urging immigration officials to focus on apprehending immigrants deemed to pose a threat to public safety or national security. immigrants who have recently crossed the US border illegally. Tipton, appointed by former President Donald Trump, has agreed to cancel the Mayorkas note, which has been challenged by Republican officials in Texas and Louisiana. However, he suspended his decision for seven days to give the Biden government time to appeal. Friday’s decision is the latest setback in federal court on the Biden administration’s immigration agenda, which has faced more than a dozen lawsuits from Texas and other Republican-controlled states. Federal judges appointed by Mr. Trump have prevented the Biden administration from ending a policy that requires asylum seekers to wait for their hearings in Mexico and a pandemic measure that allows border officials to be deported quickly. Tipton himself ended a 100-day moratorium on deportations during Biden’s first month in office, as well as a previous directive restricting the arrest of immigrants. The Justice Department, which represents the federal government in the trial, did not comment on Friday’s ruling. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees deportation officers from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said officials were “currently evaluating the ruling and considering the next steps”. In a note in September 2021, Mayorkas said that one’s status as an unauthorized immigrant should not be the only reason for his arrest, arguing that federal officials should focus their limited resources on detaining and deporting those considered to endanger national security, public safety or border security. “In exercising our discretion, we are guided by the fact that the majority of undocumented non-nationals who could be removed have been contributing members of our communities for years,” Mayorkas wrote, emphasizing the work of migrant workers, teachers and farm workers. . Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Credits Committee during a hearing on Wednesday 27 April 2022. Jose Luis Magana / AP But Tipton described Mayorkas’ note as too restrictive for ICE agents, saying it effectively protected some immigrants with criminal records from arrest. He found that the implementation of the directive violates the laws that require the detention of immigrants who have been convicted of certain crimes or with final deportation orders. “It is also true that the Executive Department can prioritize its resources. But it must do so within the limits set by Congress,” Tipton wrote in his 96-page opinion. “Whatever the external limits of its power, the Executive does not have the power to change the law.” The Mayorkas note instructed ICE agents to weigh “aggravating factors” such as the gravity of the crimes, the harm done to victims and previous convictions, as well as “mitigating factors” such as the age of the immigrant, the time they lived. US and military service when deciding whether to make an arrest. Tipton said the analysis limits the discretion of ICE agents and violates mandatory detention laws. “From time to time, agents and officers on the ground are forced to make quick decisions as they meet individuals, and this plan ties their hands and changes the pattern by which they make decisions about who to keep and when,” Tipton wrote. Tipton also ruled that Mayorkas had approved the note in an “arbitrary and whimsical” manner, contrary to federal law. The Biden administration’s rules, Tipton said, should have been implemented after the public was allowed to comment on policy changes. Texas and Louisiana, Tipton argued, have been hit hard by the Mayorkas directive, citing costs related to booking or providing social services, such as health care, to immigrants who are not being held by the federal government. The memorandum, issued by Mayorkas in September, is one of many policies adopted by the Biden government to review the ICE mission and reduce the number of immigrant groups subject to arrest and deportation. Under Biden, the ICE cut off detention of families with children, ended large-scale arrests at the construction site, shielded most U.S. military veterans and members of the military from deportation, and generally barred agents from arresting certain groups, including women and victims of serious crimes. In fiscal year 2021, ICE carried out 59,011 deportations, a record low. While the sharp drop in deportations can be attributed in part to the Biden government’s arrest priorities, it was in part fueled by the border emergency measure known as Title 42, which allows for the expulsion of migrants. Since March 2020, when the Trump administration invoked the Title 42 public health authority, U.S. officials along the southern border have deported immigrants nearly two million times without processing their asylum claims, according to DHS statistics. Because these deportations were carried out under a public health law, in contrast to traditional deportation procedures approved by Congress, they are not counted in the ICE deportation list. More Camilo Montoya-Galvez Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the immigration reporter for CBS News. Based in Washington, DC, it covers immigration and policy.
