(CMR) US President Joe Biden's immigration plans received a major blow on Tuesday after a judge temporarily blocked plans to pause deportation for at least 100 days.
District Judge Drew Tipton issued a temporary restraining order against a Department of Homeland Security memo that instructed agencies to pause deportations for some undocumented immigrants.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sought the restraining order.
This order is an early blow to Biden's immigration plans, including a plan to legalize an estimated 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske called for deportations to be halted, starting January 22, while policies and practices regarding immigration enforcement were reviewed. Pekoske wrote in the memo:
“The United States faces significant operational challenges at the southwest border as it is confronting the most serious global public health crisis in a century,”
“In light of those unique circumstances, the Department must surge resources to the border in order to ensure safe, legal and orderly processing, to rebuild fair and effective asylum procedures that respect human rights and due process, to adopt appropriate public health guidelines and protocols, and to prioritize responding to threats to national security, public safety, and border security.”
The 100-day moratorium went into effect Friday and applied to almost anyone who entered the US without authorization before November.
Paxton, in arguing against the moratorium, said that it violated federal law as well as an agreement Texas signed with the Department of Homeland Security to consult with Texas and other states before taking any action to “reduce, redirect, reprioritize, relax, or in any way modify immigration enforcement.”
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid