HOUSTON (AP) – A federal judge indefinitely banned President Joe Biden’s government on Tuesday from enforcing a 100-day moratorium on most deportations.
US District Judge Drew Tipton issued a preliminary injunction filed by Texas, arguing that the moratorium violated federal law and ran the risk of imposing additional charges on the state.
Biden pictured the 100-day break on deportations during his campaign as part of a larger overhaul of immigration enforcement and an attempt to reverse former President Donald Trump’s priorities. Biden has proposed a sweeping immigration bill that would allow the legalization of an estimated 11 million people living illegally in the US. He’s also outlined other guidelines that immigration and border agents should focus on for enforcement.
Tipton, a Trump-appointed person, initially ruled on Jan. 26 that the moratorium violated federal law on administrative procedures and that the US could not demonstrate why a deportation break was warranted. A temporary restraining order from the judge was due to expire on Tuesday.
Tipton’s ruling did not require deportations to resume at their previous pace. Even without a moratorium, immigration offices have wide latitude in enforcing removal and treatment cases.
But in the days following his ruling, authorities deported 15 people to Jamaica and hundreds of others to Central America. The Biden administration has also continued to expel immigrants under a separate trial initiated by Trump officials, who are relying on public health law over the coronavirus pandemic.
The legal battle over the ban on deportation is an early sign of Republican backlash against Biden’s immigration priorities, just as Democrats and pro-immigrants fought legal groups against Trump’s proposals. Nearly four years before Tipton’s order, Trump signed a travel ban from seven countries with predominantly Muslim populations causing chaos in airports. Legal groups have successfully filed a lawsuit to stop implementation of the ban.
It was not immediately clear whether the Biden government would appeal Tipton’s latest ruling. The Justice Department has not requested a suspension of Tipton’s previous temporary restraining order.