An Ohio federal judge partially blocked a Biden administration directive on Tuesday ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to prioritize certain groups of immigrants for detention and deportation, according to with a legal challenge presented by three Republican-led states.
U.S. District Judge Michael Newman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, appointed by former President Donald Trump, said a September 2021 note issued by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas led ICE agents to violate laws requiring the detention of certain immigrants facing deportation due to criminal convictions.
The Mayorkas note ordered ICE agents to focus on arresting immigrants who are considered a threat to national security or public safety, as well as migrants who recently crossed a U.S. border illegally. · Legal. Mayorkas’ note was similar to two other Biden administration immigration enforcement policies issued in early 2021 that also reduced the categories of deported immigrants.
However, the Mayorkas directive gave the ICE more discretion to decide whether immigrants with criminal convictions threaten public safety, instructing officers to consider a set of aggravating factors, such as the seriousness of the crime and arrests. and mitigating factors, including pre-military service and the length of time the immigrant has lived in the U.S. before making the arrests.
In his ruling, Newman acknowledged that federal officials have discretion when it comes to enforcing immigration laws, saying that “the Mayorkas equilibrium analysis is acceptable at certain times in the deportation process.” But he said Congress ordered the arrest of immigrants with certain criminal convictions and those with final deportation orders.
“The permanent guide shifts the custodial and elimination factors that Congress intended for DHS officials to consider for their extratextual analysis of all of the circumstances,” Newman wrote in his 79-page opinion.
Through his national mandate, Newman banned federal agents from relying on Mayorkas’ guidance to make “custody decisions” on immigrants subject to mandatory detention. He also blocked the use of the note to release or delay the deportation of immigrants with final deportation orders.
It is unclear how the ICE will comply with Tuesday’s ruling and whether the agency will continue to enforce parts of Mayorkas’ note that were not blocked. DHS representatives did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling. The Justice Department, which could appeal the order, did not comment.
Tuesday’s court order is a victory for Republican officials in Arizona, Montana and Ohio, who filed a lawsuit against the Mayorkas board. It is also another legal defeat for President Biden’s immigration agenda, which has been hampered by demands from conservative states, especially Texas.
Days after Mr. Biden took office, Texas successfully challenged and blocked his administration’s attempt to stop deportations from the U.S. interior for 100 days. The state has it too convinced judges order the Biden administration to reinstate Trump-era border policies, including a program that requires asylum seekers to await their U.S. hearings in Mexico.
Over the past year, the Biden administration has attempted to reshape immigration policies at the ICE, an agency that has faced intense criticism from progressives and immigrant advocates.
In addition to enacting new enforcement priorities, the administration has banned the ICE from detaining pregnant or nursing women, victims of serious crimes and migrant families traveling with minor children. He also suspended mass arrests of immigrants in the workplace.
Biden administration policies, along with the coronavirus pandemic, have kept ICE arrests and deportations low. The ICE arrested 74,082 immigrants fiscal year 2021which ended in October, a drop of 28% compared to 2020, while 59,011 deportations were carried out, a historic low for the agency.
Republican lawmakers have said Biden-era directives encourage illegal migration and prohibit ICE agents from fully enforcing immigration laws.
Leading Biden officials have argued that its policies allow the ICE to better focus its limited enforcement resources on noncitizens with serious criminal convictions that could victimize community members, while saving undocumented immigrants who they have lived and worked in the U.S. for years without committing crimes.
In a January interviewMayorkas said the changes represent “a profound change away from the indiscriminate application of the previous administration.”
“We have fundamentally changed the application of immigration in the interior,” Mayorkas told CBS News. “For the first time, our policy explicitly states that the illegal presence of a noncitizen in the United States will not, in itself, be a basis for initiating enforcement action.”
- In:
- US Immigration and Customs Service
Add Comment