Biden's 'catch and release' border policy struck down by US judge
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[March 09, 2023]
By Daniel Wiessner
(Reuters) - A federal judge in Florida on Wednesday agreed with the
state's Republican attorney general that the policy of President Joe
Biden's administration to release many people who illegally cross the
U.S.-Mexican border rather than detaining them violates U.S. immigration
law.
U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell in Pensacola blocked the
administration from continuing to implement a 2021 Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) memo that had authorized "alternatives to
detention" to ease overcrowding in detention facilities. These
alternatives included ankle bracelets, phone monitoring or check-ins by
immigration officers. Republican critics have called the policy "catch
and release."
Wetherell, appointed by Republican former President Donald Trump, said
federal immigration authorities lack the power to implement those
alternatives on a widespread basis under existing law. The judge agreed
with the argument made by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, who
challenged the policy.
"Defendants have effectively turned the Southwest Border into a
meaningless line in the sand and little more than a speedbump for aliens
flooding into the country," Wetherell wrote, referring to non-U.S.
citizens who cross the border illegally.
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Wetherell gave the administration seven days to file an appeal before
his decision takes effect.
Moody's office and the DHS did not immediately respond to requests for
comment.
The administration has said it lacks the resources and detention
capacity to process a recent surge of migrants. Wednesday's ruling could
lead to a significant increase in the number of people held in detention
centers.
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A member of the Texas National Guard
places razor wire on the banks of the Rio Bravo river, the border
between the United States and Mexico, with the purpose of
reinforcing border security and inhibiting the crossing of migrants
into the United States, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico February
16, 2023. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
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Moody sued DHS in 2021, claiming its policy, officially known as
Parole Plus Alternative to Detention, violates a U.S. law called the
Immigration and Nationality Act. More than 100,000 people had been
released into Florida as a result of the administration's policy,
forcing the state to incur substantial costs to provide social
services, according to the lawsuit.
Federal immigration law allows DHS to "parole" migrants rather than
detaining them "on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian
reasons or significant public benefit." The administration argued
that the 2021 memo was an exercise of that discretion because
overcrowding in detention centers amounted to a humanitarian crisis.
Wetherell decided that the policy violated the requirement that the
government consider parole on a case-by-case basis.
Florida and 19 other Republican-led states are separately
challenging another administration policy that would allow hundreds
of thousands of people from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua to
be released into the United States rather than detained each year.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Will
Dunham and Alexia Garamfalvi)
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