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Immigration and customs enforcement workers were told on Thursday that despite a federal judge blocking President Joe Biden’s break on deportations, they should still focus on removing people who match the priorities of the news administration, such as those considered threats to public safety, according to an email obtained by BuzzFeed. News.
Federal Judge Drew Tipton on Tuesday indefinitely banned the Biden administration from pursuing a 100-day moratorium on most evictions. Tipton, a person appointed by Trump, said the memo violated administrative law and that the state of Texas, which had filed a lawsuit against the White House, had correctly shown it would suffer prejudice as a result higher number of inmates and public education costs.
The court order dealt a blow to Biden’s goal of halting evictions while reviewing Department of Homeland Security policies and potential reforms. However, in issuing his order, Tipton did not demand that DHS deport certain people or reverse a shift in priorities for people to be arrested and detained.
The Biden moratorium applied to all non-citizens who received a final deportation order, except those who engaged in an alleged act of terrorism, people who were not in the United States. before November 1, 2020 or those who have voluntarily agreed to waive any right to stay in the country.
Matthew Allen, ICE’s acting deputy director, wrote to employees that while the court order blocked Biden’s moratorium, it does not prevent them from making eviction decisions on a case-by-case basis, such as granting a reprieve to those at risk of being expelled from the country.
ICE employees were told to disregard the blocked moratorium in determining whether to deport someone, but they should continue to follow previous guidelines on “prioritization of removal resources.”
In January, a DHS memo asked employees to focus their efforts on immigrants who pose a threat to national security or other threats to public safety, as well as people who arrived in the United States after November 1. . In February, ICE also ordered officers to focus its law enforcement resources on essentially the same pool of people.
An official from the Department of Homeland Security told reporters at the time that the interim guidelines, which are expected to be followed by another directive in May, will help the agency “better fulfill” its mission.
The email sent Thursday comes amid attempts by the Biden administration to reform the much-maligned agency and the work it is doing across the country. Former President Donald Trump’s directive in 2017 made almost all undocumented immigrants a priority for arrest, leading to a higher proportion of those without a criminal conviction arrested.
Some immigrant advocates and experts have pushed the Biden administration to quash the deportations, regardless of the order.
“The Biden administration should seek a stay of this order, which contradicts the broad power to make enforcement decisions that the federal government generally holds,” said Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer, professor at the Law and Defense Clinic Cornell University Immigration Office, in a statement. “Further, even if this ordinance prohibited a complete stop to evictions, the Biden administration can and should be more careful with the evictions it conducts.”
For his part, Tipton questioned in his order why the moratorium was even necessary.
“Why does DHS need a 100-day removals hiatus to process immigration and asylum claims at the southwest border ‘fairly and efficiently’? Why is interrupting removals essential to redirect immigration resources? And just as crucial, why and how does the break tie in with the new executive’s need to reset priorities? ” he wrote.
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