Federal judge blocks Biden’s 100-day deportation ‘pause’
A federal judge in Texas blocked President Joe Biden’s 100-day deportation “pause” on Tuesday in a ruling that may point to a new phase of conservative legal challenges to his administration’s immigration agenda.
Judge Drew Tipton, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, granted a temporary restraining order sought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, saying the state had demonstrated a likelihood of facing immediate harm from Biden’s pause. The court order will be in effect for 14 days while Tipton considers a broader motion by the state for a preliminary injunction.
Though the order is temporary, the state’s lawsuit portends more legal challenges by Biden opponents, appealing to a judicial branch reshaped by the confirmation of hundreds of Trump appointees.
In one of his first executive actions, Biden ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to halt most deportations from the interior of the United States for 100 days. The pause was intended to allow ICE to overhaul its enforcement priorities, amid intense criticism from Democrats that Trump had used the agency to terrorize immigrants who had not committed violent or other serious crimes.
Biden’s moratorium did not apply to border-crossers who arrived in the United States after Nov. 1, and it allowed for other exceptions including matters of national security. Conservatives were incensed that Biden’s pause would prevent most deportations of criminals with violent felony convictions, potentially allowing their release into the United States once they’d completed jail or prison sentences.
Texas argued that the moratorium would place an unfair burden on the state and that the measure violated an agreement Paxton and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed with Ken Cuccinelli, then serving as acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, less than two weeks before Biden was sworn in.
Tipton’s ruling did not address the agreement, which the Biden administration does not recognize as legally binding.
The state also referenced a Fox News report citing an internal ICE email calling for the mass release of detainees. But government attorneys provided the email to the court Monday, indicating that its contents had not been accurately reported by the network.
Paxton, a conservative firebrand who advised Trump during the former president’s failed quest to overturn the 2020 election, is currently under investigation for alleged state securities fraud and is facing other legal troubles that include allegations of bribery.
In his tweet, Paxton described Biden’s deportation pause as “a seditious left-wing insurrection,” repeating a term used by lawmakers of both parties to describe the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Tipton, who was appointed by Trump in June, made explicit in his ruling that the restraining order applies nationwide. He scheduled a new hearing Thursday and called the issues raised by the DHS agreement with Texas “of such gravity and constitutional import that they require further development of the record and briefing prior to addressing the merits.”
Tipton also left open the possibility that he would narrow his ruling in the coming weeks.
“The Court notes that the scope of this injunction is something it is willing to revisit after the parties fully brief and argue the issue for purposes of the upcoming motion for preliminary injunction,” he wrote. “Though the scope of this [temporary restraining order] is broad, it is not necessarily permanent.”
Tipton directed ICE to return to its previous operational posture, effectively directing the agency to resume deportations. An ICE official said the agency was preparing a statement.
When Trump took office in 2017, he ordered several immigration-related moves, including a ban on travel from certain Muslim-majority countries that unleashed chaos and protests at U.S. airports. His administration separated more than 3,000 migrant children from their parents during a 2018 border crackdown, a “zero tolerance” policy that Biden’s Justice Department on Tuesday formally rescinded.
Hundreds of additional executive actions by Trump were disputed in the federal court system. Immigrant advocates and attorneys filed many of those motions in California’s U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. The Southern District of Texas, where Tipton presides, is part of the 5th Circuit, which is considered among the country’s most conservative.