WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court is taking up a dispute over a blocked Biden administration policy that would prioritise deportation of people in the country illegally who pose the greatest public safety risk.
Republican-led states sued and won a nationwide court order that is meant to limit immigration officers’ discretion in deciding whom to deport.
It’s the latest example of a Republican litigation strategy that has succeeded in slowing Biden administration initiatives by going to GOP-friendly courts.
In a separate ongoing legal dispute, three judges chosen by former president Donald Trump are among the four Republican-appointed judges who have so far prevented the administration’s student loan cancellation programme from taking effect.
At the centre of the immigration legal fight is a September 2021 directive from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that paused deportations unless individuals had committed acts of terrorism, espionage or “egregious threats to public safety”.
The guidance, issued after Joe Biden became president, updated a Trump-era policy that removed people in the country illegally regardless of criminal history or community ties.
The administration said in a written high-court filing that the “decision to prioritise threats to national security, public safety, and border security was both reasonable and reasonably explained”, especially since Congress has not given DHS enough money to vastly increase the number of people it holds and deports.
Texas and Louisiana, which sued over the directive, responded that the administration’s guidance violates federal law that requires the detention of people who are in the United States (US) illegally and who have been convicted of serious crimes.
