UPDATE: Texas on Friday moved to stop President Joe Biden from allowing a 100-day moratorium on deportations, bringing one of the first lawsuits against his new administration.
In rushing to court not even a week after Biden was sworn in, America’s biggest red state signaled that it was ready to resume the role of chief antagonist to a Democratic president’s immigration agenda, after four years of cheering on Donald Trump’s hardline policies along the southern border.
The federal lawsuit seeks a halt to the deportation moratorium “for certain noncitizens” that was to begin Friday.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Former President Donald Trump’s efforts to rein in illegal immigration required many costly and lengthy legal battles.
While they often resulted in court victories reversing the injunctions of activist left-wing judges, new President Joe Biden sought to reverse them on his very first day in office with but the stroke of a pen.
However, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton warned that it will not be so simple.
When the @JoeBiden admin breaks the law, I take action. I have told @DHSgov to immediately rescind its illegal, unconscionable deportation freeze—or TX will sue.
As AG, I will always put Americans, Texans first—not dangerous aliens who must be deported!https://t.co/anW89QJiPP pic.twitter.com/ehsucOe6Ks
— Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) January 22, 2021
In a letter to Biden, the ardently Trump-supporting Paxton warned that he would sue Biden’s administration for illegally suspending deportations and ending the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which only recently was affirmed by the courts.
“Border states like Texas pay a particularly high price when the federal government fails to faithfully execute our country’s immigration laws,” Paxton wrote in the letter, according to the Epoch Times.
Biden’s proposed immigration overhaul may not actually have an immediate impact since many of those detained already are subject to immediate deportation due to coronavirus restrictions.
The policies also would not apply to those “suspected of terrorism or espionage, or otherwise poses a danger to the national security of the United States,” according to a memo from the Department of Homeland Security.
However, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., cautioned this week that the Biden administration’s “fig leaf” of security measures belied the true agenda.
Immigration policy is expected to be overseen by Biden’s nominee for Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas.
Mayorkas, a Cuban refugee who fled as a child following Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, has since sought to bring Castro’s brand of oppressive communism to US shores. He has gone on record as a staunch advocate for open-border policies.
But Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., forced Mayorkas’s confirmation into a full hearing after the nominee refused to commit to using funds earmarked for the border wall to fulfill their appropriated purpose and hedged on enforcing other federally mandated immigration policies.
