Houston A federal judge banned Tuesday Tuesday indefinitely from enforcing President Joe Biden’s government a 100-day moratorium on most deportations. U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton issued a preliminary injunction requested by Texas, arguing that the moratorium violated federal law and dared to impose additional costs on the state.
Mr. Biden proposed the 100-day hiatus for deportations during his campaign as part of a larger review of immigration enforcement and an effort to reverse former President Donald Trump’s priorities.
Mr. Biden has proposed a comprehensive immigration bill that would allow the legalization of illegal residents in the US. He also instituted other guidelines on who should apply immigration and border agents.
Tipton, a Trump nominee, initially ruled Jan. 26 that the moratorium violated federal administrative procedure law and that the U.S. could not show why a deportation was justified. A temporary restraining order issued by the judge would expire Tuesday.
Tipton’s ruling did not require deportations to resume at their previous pace. Even without a moratorium, immigration agencies have a wide scope of enforcing removals and processing cases.
But in the days following his ruling, authorities deported 15 people to Jamaica and hundreds of others to Central America. The Biden government also continued to expel immigrants under a separate process initiated by Trump officials, who appealed to the Public Health Act because of the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. Civil Liberties Union Attorney Kate Huddleston reacted angrily to the latest ruling, saying in a statement, “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton continues … to force Biden’s government to follow the xenophobic policies of former President Trump. By allowing these deportations to continue, families will be torn apart and people who have the opportunity to receive relief in the United States will be put at risk again. ‘
The legal battle over the deportation ban is an early sign of Republican opposition to the immigration priorities of Mr. Biden, just as Democrats and pro-immigrant legal groups fought Trump’s proposals. Nearly four years before Tipton’s order, Mr. Trump signed a travel ban on seven countries with predominantly Muslim populations causing chaos at airports. Legal groups have successfully sued to stop the implementation of the ban.
It was not immediately clear whether Biden’s government would appeal against Tipton’s latest ruling. The Department of Justice did not request the earlier temporary restriction of Tipton.