The state of Texas, joined by former president Donald Trump aide Stephen Miller, filed a lawsuit this week challenging President Joe Biden’s immigration policies in an effort to force the administration to deport migrants being released into the U.S.
The Biden administration claims it has been deporting most illegal immigrants and that it has made an exception only for unaccompanied minors and families. Nonetheless, thousands of migrants are being released into border towns, leading several to declare states of emergency.
In the suit, Texas argued the administration abandoned its “authority” by forcing local and state officials to care for migrants.
This means “more Texas will be exposed to COVID-19, more Texans will contract COVID-19, more Texans will die of COVID-19, and Texas will incur significant costs in terms of health care and law enforcement resources,” it said.
Miller and Texas officials said Biden violated the Administrative Procedure Act, among other laws, and asks the court for an injunction to force the Department of Homeland Security to “return all covered aliens” to Mexico or detain them for at least 14 days before release.
Administration officials have repeatedly echoed Biden’s claims that the US has a moral obligation to render “humanitarian” support to the more than 2 million illegals projected to cross the border this year.
“We have a number of unaccompanied minors, children who are coming into the country without their families. What we are not doing, what the last administration did was separate those kids, rip them from the arms of their parents at the border. We are not doing that,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in February.
However, despite Psaki’s deceptive claim, Biden’s rhetoric has compelled many to send their innocent and defenseless children on a dangerous trek across Mexico with no adult supervision, or else to leave them in the hands of human smugglers amid reports of physical and sexual abuse running rampant.
Psaki suggested that since they had already arrived, it would be harder and more dangerous to send them back than to simply assume responsibility for them, even though doing so might encourage even more to come.
“These kids, we have a couple of options. We can send them back home and do a dangerous journey back. We are not doing that, either. That is also putting them at risk,” she said. “[Or] We can quickly transfer them from Customs and Border Protection to these Health and Human Services-run facilities.”
