Texas Judge to Extend Curbs on Joe Biden’s No-Deportation Policy

President Joe Biden’s plan to block deportations of illegal aliens living in the United States will likely be tied up for another month, according to media reports.

CNN reported January 29:

A federal judge in Texas said Friday that he’ll likely extend his hold on the Biden administration’s deportation moratorium until February 23.

Earlier this week, Judge Drew Tipton of the Southern District of Texas, a Trump appointee, blocked the administration’s 100-day pause on deportations, delivering a blow to one of President Joe Biden’s first immigration actions. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, had sued, leading to the first legal block of one of Biden’s executive actions.

Tipton initially blocked the administration from executing its deportation pause for 14 days. The temporary restraining order, Tipton argued, was appropriate under the Administrative Procedure Act.

U.S. border agencies are still deporting migrants back to Central America, according to a group that tracks deportation flights. But the aircraft are likely carrying recent arrivals at the border, and those new migrants are not included in Biden’s no-deportation policy. Advocates also claim that some migrants are being deported from interior states.

During President Donald Trump’s tenure, pro-migration groups persuaded many judges to block Trump regulations — including his cancellation of the DACA amnesty — on the grounds that they did not precisely follow the bureaucratic procedures required by the Administrative Procedure Act. Pro-migration advocates are displeased at the sudden reversal.

On 26 January, Breitbart News reported that Paxton had filed a lawsuit against the administration:

Hours after taking office on January 20, Biden signed an executive order that halts deportations of most illegal aliens for at least 100 days. The order came as illegal immigration has spiked in recent months and a migrant caravan heads to the United States-Mexico border in the hopes of taking advantage of the Biden administration’s lax enforcement policies.

Last week, Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, asking a federal judge to block the order noting the negative impact it would have on the state of Texas and its social services.

The court decision, however, constraints only part of Biden’s deportation freeze. For example, the judge’s decisions do not curb Biden’s directives to sharply reduce the arrests and detention of illegal migrants.