DHS Will Comply With Court Order Ending Restrictions on Arrests and Deportations

The Department of Homeland Security recently stated that it would abide by a District Court ruling that struck down the substantially narrowed priorities for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stating:

While the Department strongly disagrees with the Southern District of Texas’s court decision to vacate the Guidelines, DHS will abide by the court’s order as it continues to appeal it.

During the appeals process, ICE agents and officers will make enforcement decisions 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 greatest threats to the homeland

Earlier this month, after Texas and Louisiana sued the Biden Admin., Southern District of Texas Judge Drew Tipton issued an order nullifying the Biden Administration’s memo that greatly limited which illegal aliens ICE can arrest and deport. Tipton also issued a stay on his order for seven days which expired as the administration began its appeal process.

“The September memo, which solidified temporary guidance issued in Feb. 2021, limited agents to prioritizing recent border crossers, threats to national security and those with certain “aggravated” felonies,” reports Fox News.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated in the September memo,

The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen therefore should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them. We will use our discretion and focus our enforcement resources in a more targeted way. Justice and our country’s well-being require it.

Since the memo’s release, arrests and deportations of criminal illegal aliens have dropped dramatically. In FY2021, ICE arrested 74,082 aliens and deported 59,011. During that period, only 47,755 arrests took place after Feb. 18, when the new priorities were implemented. In addition, just 28,677 of the 59,011 deportations occurred after Feb. 18.

For context, in FY2020 there were 103,603 arrests and 185,884 removals. FY2019 saw 143,099 arrests and 267,258 deportations.

In his ruling, Judge Tipton stated that in broadly limiting ICE arrests and deportations, the government “offers an implausible construction of federal law that flies in the face of the limitations imposed by Congress.” The judge added:

True, the Executive Branch has case-by-case discretion to abandon immigration enforcement as to a particular individual. This case, however, does not involve individualized decisionmaking. Instead, this case is about a rule that binds Department of Homeland Security officials in a generalized, prospective manner–all in contravention of Congress’s detention mandate.

Fox News concludes, “the DHS memo itself now has a statement attached to it: ‘On June 10, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued a final judgment vacating Secretary Mayorkas’s September 30, 2021 memorandum Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law. Accordingly until further notice, ICE will not apply or rely upon the Mayorkas Memorandum in any manner.'”

You can read the complete article here.