U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) is preparing to resume deportation of asylum seekers after a Trump-appointed Texas judge ruled against a 100-day suspension ordered by Joe Biden.
The ruling, in response to a challenge by a leading figure in the Republican bid to reverse the election result, is the first shot in a legitimate backlash action by Trump loyalists intended to tarnish the Biden government’s agenda promote.
Human rights activists said the resumption of flights also raises the question of whether Ice agents, accused of systematically abusing migrants and detainees, can resist the new government’s efforts to reform the agency.
An Ice plane took off from San Antonio to Port-au-Prince on Monday morning with Haitians detained on the U.S.-Mexican border and driven out under an extremely controversial Ice interpretation of public health laws.
“Deportation flight to Haiti on the first day of black history month,” Guerline Jozef, co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, wrote in a text to the Guardian. “What a slap in the face.”
According to activists, there are also 23 Africans who have been deported from an ice container plant in Alexandria, Louisiana, since Tuesday, including 11 Angolans, seven Cameroonians, two Congolese and three others of unknown nationalities.
Although the Haitian flight was also likely to continue under the Biden moratorium, the expected African flight defies the order, as well as guidelines laid down by acting Secretary of Homeland Security David Pekoske, which went into effect on Monday. Pekoske called for the deportation to be restricted to suspected terrorists, convicted criminals are seen as a threat to public safety and undocumented people caught at the border after November 1st.
At least some of the potential deportees have filed lawsuits, and one of them was granted an emergency court appeal on Sunday night. Others are expected to be deported on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Ice appears to be continuing the deportation flight despite reports that Cameroonians were deported to their homeland last October and November amid a bloody civil conflict locked up, beaten, hidden – or in some cases simply disappeared.
“A lot of them are locked up in the military prison, and this is where they took a whole bunch of people with them who were arrested by the military,” said Mambo Tse, a Cameroonian community activist in the US. “It’s not safe.”
Lauren Seibert, a Human Rights Watch researcher and advocate, said: “After many Cameroonians were denied and deported to the United States in recent months, Human Rights Watch has documented several cases of deportees serving jail time, abuse, criminal prosecution and threats by the Cameroonian authorities upon their return. Some of their families were also threatened and harassed. ”
With the inauguration on January 20, Biden’s government ordered a 100-day cessation of deportation flights, with certain limited exceptions, while reviewing Ice procedures to ‘focus the department’s resources where they are most needed’.
However, a Texas federal judge, Drew Tipton, who was appointed by Donald Trump last year, ordered a suspension and blocked the suspension, but not the new guidelines. Tipton’s nomination was opposed by Democrats over concerns about his lack of judicial experience and his support for the reinstatement of a Texas social worker fired for using a racial barrier against a black colleague. He argued: “It certainly does not prove a pattern of hostility towards someone or people who are of a particular race.”
The case against the moratorium was filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who played a leading role in trying to reverse the 2020 election result.
Paxton addressed Trump supporters in Washington on January 6 shortly before the Capitol storms.
“We will not stop fighting. We are Texans, we are Americans, and the fight will continue, ‘he told the crowd, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Paxton was charged with security fraud allegedly committed before taking office. He was also accused of abusing his office by seven whistleblowers and is being sued for retaliation after the whistleblowers were fired. He is reportedly under FBI investigation for misusing official allegations.
Paxton’s lawyer Philip Hilder declined to comment on reports from an FBI investigation.
Following Tipton’s ruling on deportations, Paxton declared his official ‘Victory’ Twitter account.
“Texas is the FIRST state in the country to file a lawsuit against the Biden Admin,” he wrote. “AND WE WIN.”
VICTORY.
Texas is the FIRST state in the country to file a lawsuit against the Biden Admin.
AND WE WIN.
Within 6 days of Biden’s inauguration, Texas stopped its illegal freezing.
* It * was a riotous leftist uprising. And my team and I stopped it.
– Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) 26 January 2021
Paxton, who uses the language widely used to denounce the looting of the Capitol, describes the 100-day deportation moratorium as a ‘rebellious left-wing uprising’ that he has stopped.
An Ice spokesman said in a statement to the Guardian on Monday that the agency “complied with the temporary restriction” issued by the Texas court.
Attorneys for the Department of Justice protested against the stay in Tipton’s court, the southern district of Texas, but it was unclear when and if they would appeal the verdict. A department spokesman declined to comment.
The American Civil Liberties Union wants to challenge the Texan ruling on behalf of immigrant rights groups.
“There’s a legal aspect to it and a practical aspect,” said Cody Wofsy, an ACLU lawyer. “Are individual ice officers who do not agree with the new government’s policy going to implement these policies, or are they going to try to implement a more unforgiving immigration policy that they prefer?”