Texas Is Suing The Government Over New immigration Policies

The State of Texas is involved in a lawsuit challenging the government’s policies relating to how immigrants released from prison are handled. The lawsuit, filed by multiple states but lead by Texas, argues the Biden Administration isn’t doing enough to help states with immigrants released from prison.

Inmates released From Prisons

In the lawsuit Texas is arguing that, under normal procedures, when inmates are released from prison that must be deported, the state informs federal immigration officials. Many of these inmates are dangerous, or have criminal records, or something in their background that would subject them to deportation after their release.

The state will then temporarily detain the inmates, just long enough for federal officials to take control of the inmate. Immigration officials would then take the now-released inmate, and prepare the inmate for deportation.

Government is Not Taking Custody of Inmates

The lawsuit alleges that the current administration has not been taking custody of released immigrant inmates after being informed of the inmate’s release. As a result, the immigrant inmates are having to be detained by the states for an inordinate amount of time, costing the states money.

The states contend that many of the immigrant inmates were in jail for possessing large amounts of illegal drugs, and should be deported. The government says that the constitutionality of requiring post-sentence detainer is questionable, and many people have been detained, that should not legally have been detained under the policy.

The lawsuit asks the court to compel the president and immigration officials to comply with the current law requiring Immigration and Customs to take custody of, and deport, the released inmates.

Texas Also Suing for “Remain in Mexico” Policy

But that’s not all the State of Texas is suing for. Texas is also suing the federal government to put back into place a policy that required any immigrants applying for asylum that were in Mexico and waiting for asylum decisions to remain in Mexico, pending the decision on their application. The “wait in Mexico” policy applied to anyone, even those immigrants that weren’t actually Mexican, or living in Mexico before seeking asylum in the United States.

Before the policy, these applicants could remain in the United States while awaiting a decision on their Asylum application.

The justification for revoking the “Remain in Mexico” policy was that many migrants, while waiting in Mexico, were living in very dangerous or unsanitary conditions. Many migrants would be forced to wait at the border, in poor conditions, in a country, Mexico, that many were not even legally allowed to be in. The President noted that traditionally, asylum seekers have been allowed to wait in America while awaiting an asylum decision.

The policy was rescinded by the Biden administration. Some see the elimination of the policy as humane, while others see it as a cause of an influx of migrants crossing the Mexico-US border.

Contact the Palm Beach County immigration attorneys at Devore Law Group today for help if you are being deported or face the threat of deportation.

Resources:

texastribune.org/2021/04/06/texas-ken-paxton-detainers/

texastribune.org/2021/04/13/ken-paxton-migrant-protection-protocols/