The very conservative United States Supreme Court on Friday handed the Joe Biden administration a resounding victory by authorizing it to apply its chosen priorities in deporting undocumented immigrants.
By a majority of eight out of nine judges, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by the states of Texas and Louisiana in the hands of elected Republicans on procedural grounds.
This ruling allows for the entry into force of a directive approved in September 2021 by the Minister of Internal Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, which calls on the Immigration Police (ICE) to focus their efforts on foreigners who pose a terrorist threat or criminals and on those who have arrived are after November 1, 2020.
There are more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, and “we don’t have the resources to arrest and deport every one of them,” he justified, contradicting the view taken by former Republican President Donald Trump.
These new orders were immediately challenged in court by Texas and Louisiana. They had argued that this would incur additional costs for education, police and social services.
A federal judge ruled in their favor in June 2022, blocking implementation of that policy. Joe Biden’s administration then turned to the Supreme Court, which eventually agreed with him without addressing the substantive arguments.
“Blank Power of Attorney”
“States wanted the federal judiciary to direct the executive branch to change its arrest policy to make more arrests,” but the Supreme Court has repeatedly clarified that only those subject to an arrest policy can challenge this, says Judge Brett Kavanaugh on behalf of Judge Brett Kavanaugh the majority .
“Applying this basic principle (…) we conclude that the States are unable to submit this complaint,” he adds. “The decision should not be construed as suggesting that the executive has complete freedom in this matter,” he adds, leaving the door open to future complaints.
The powerful civil rights group ACLU has welcomed the Supreme Court’s “reasonable” rejection of Texas and Louisiana’s efforts to “force the government into as draconian deportation policies as possible.”
The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, denounced a “scandalous decision” on Twitter. The Supreme Court “is giving the Biden administration carte blanche,” he wrote, promising to continue using his state’s National Guard to turn back migrants at the border with Mexico.
Illegal arrivals at the US southern border had hit historic highs before the immigration rule change six weeks ago and remain high, with nearly 170,000 arrests in May.
The topic is very controversial and should be one of the main topics of the 2024 presidential campaign.