The Biden administration said it will appeal a federal judge’s order that prevents immigration authorities from releasing detained migrants without court dates, a policy the administration says is necessary as it installs Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities are overcapacity after a sharp increase in illegal immigration this year. week when title 42 ended.
Justice Department lawyers on Saturday asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida for an emergency stay on Judge T. Kent Wetherell II’s two-week restraining order on the administration’s policy of Biden, notifying the court of the administration’s intention to appeal to the 11th. Circuit, according to court documents.
Wetherell on Thursday blocked the administration’s “parole with conditions” policy in response to a lawsuit from the state of Florida. The order came as migrants surged at the US border as the Title 42 public health order, which allows for the rapid removal of migrants due to the COVID-19 pandemic, expired. Agents encountered more than 10,000 migrants over several days and more than 25,000 were detained as of Friday morning.
The release policy was described in a Note from the Border Patrol this week, which says migrants can be allowed into the country on parole, a process normally reserved for “urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit,” if CBP faces overcrowding. The memorandum calls the practice “parole with conditions,” since migrants must make an appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or request a notice of appearance by mail.
WHITE HOUSE COMES AFTER FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS RELEASE OF MIGRANTS WITHOUT COURT APPOINTMENTS: ‘SABOTAGE’
Migrants board Border Patrol vans after waiting along the border wall to surrender to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents for processing of immigration and asylum applications upon crossing the Rio Grande into the United States at the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas May 11, 2023. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
under a parolemigrants are quickly released into the country, do not receive an alien registration number, and do not receive a court date.
The use of probation is authorized if a sector’s capacity exceeds 125%, if officers arrest 7,000 a day in 72 hours, or if the average prison time exceeds 60 hours.
The Biden administration argues that the order to move away from its parole policy “will irreparably harm the United States and the public by frustrating measures that are necessary to secure the border and protect the health and well-being of both migrants and Border Patrol agents,” the document states.
FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS BIDEN ADMIN FROM RELEASING MIGRANTS WITHOUT IRS CITES AS TITLE 42 EXPIRES
Migrants wait for a bus to take them to a processing center after surrendering to US Border Patrol agents after crossing from Mexico in Fronton, Texas, on May 12, 2023. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Without its pandemic-era Title 42 authority, the Department of Homeland Security cannot deport illegal aliens who show up at the border and “does not have the resources to stop this record number of arrivals, nor staff and facilities to securely process and issue collection documents to all such newcomers in the normal course,” according to the government.
DHS has said that without the ability to release migrants, an overwhelming 45,000 people will be in detention by the end of May.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody argued in the state’s lawsuit that the “parole with conditions” policy was materially identical to a “parole + ATD” policy blocked by the same judge in March. Judge Wetherell agreed with this assessment. in your order.
BORDER PATROL CHIEF AUTHORIZES RELEASING OF MIGRANTS TO US WITHOUT COURT DATES AS TITLE 42 ENDS
U.S. Border Patrol agents hand out wristbands as they process asylum seekers waiting between the double fence along the U.S.-Mexico border near Tijuana, Mexico, Monday in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
Wetherell was unconvinced by the government’s arguments that blocking the release of migrants would cause harm.
“Leaving aside the fact that even President Biden recently acknowledged that the border has been in chaos for ‘several years,’ the defendants’ doomsday rhetoric rings hollow because, as detailed in Florida, this problem is largely the defendants doing through adoption an implementation of policies that have encouraged so-called ‘irregular migration’ that has become quite regular over the past 2 years,” he said.
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On Friday, the White House called Wetherell’s sentence “sabotage.”
Fox News’ Adam Shaw, Bill Melugin and David Spunt contributed to this report.
