Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s administration for releasing border crossers infected with the Chinese coronavirus into the state, causing “irreparable harm,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit, filed this week, asks a federal judge for a preliminary injunction against a series of Biden policies that all work together to carry out the administration’s expansive Catch and Release program whereby border crossers are apprehended, briefly held by federal immigration officials, and then released into the U.S. interior.
According to the lawsuit, the Biden administration is violating the Immigration and Nationality Act when they release border crossers into the U.S. interior without first determining if they are infected with the coronavirus.
The lawsuit states:
DHS policies and statistics prove that DHS does not meaningfully enforce the plain requirements of the INA to detain any such aliens for a “sufficient time to enable the immigration officers and medical officers to subject such aliens to observation and an examination sufficient to determine whether or not” they could be carrying a communicable disease of public health significance, including COVID-19. [Emphasis added]
For instance, CBP does not detain aliens for medical observation or examination. CBP’s medical policy “applies to the provision of enhanced medical support for individuals in CBP custody along the [Southwest Border (SWB)].” [Emphasis added]
Data from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the lawsuit alleges, proves the Biden administration “is not detaining the overwhelming majority of members of family units whom [Customs and Border Protection] encounters at the border and is releasing the few it does process in Family Residential Centers in a matter of days.”
The lawsuit continues:
Indeed, ICE’s data shows that in Fiscal Year 2021, to date, it has only processed a total of 5,031 aliens into Family Residential Centers. These data show that as of June 2021, ICE was only detaining 1,371 aliens in family units in Family Residential Centers, with an Average Daily Population of 1,205. The Average Length of Stay was 7.5 days in March, 8.8 days in April, 5.4 days in May, and 5.6 days in June. [Emphasis added]
Comparing ICE’s reported total of 5,031 aliens being processed into a Family Residential Center so far in Fiscal Year 2021 … with the 115,765 total aliens CBP processed under Title 8 (as opposed to immediate expulsion under Title 42) … proves that ICE is also not detaining the overwhelming majority of members of family units in accordance with the plain language of [the Immigration and Nationality Act]. [Emphasis added]
The Defendants’ failure to use Title 42 with respect to UAC and family units, coupled with their failure to follow the INA’s requirements regarding the detention of aliens who could have communicable diseases of public health significance, results in the release of aliens into Texas—threatening the health and safety of all Texans. [Emphasis added]
Texas is also being represented by America First Legal Foundation (AFL), specifically former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker as the AFL attorney representing the Lone Star State.
Dale Wilcox, executive director of the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) which is also serving as outside counsel for Texas in the case, said the Biden administration has created an “engineered border crisis” due to the reinstatement of its Catch and Release program.
“[The Biden administration] can hardly claim now that causing an influx of infected aliens into Texas and elsewhere in the nation is not a problem,” Wilcox said. “In fact, the situation caused by the administration’s engineered border surge is what is dire, for this and many other reasons.”
This week, former CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan said that nearly all border crossers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border — many of whom are subsequently released into the U.S. interior — have not been vaccinated for the coronavirus.
“Few to none of the nearly 1 million illegal aliens apprehended have been vaccinated, and there is little effective health infrastructure along the route to help prevent spread of the virus,” Morgan said.
Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to Biden’s Catch and Release program.
The latest Harvard/Harris poll, conducted this month, reveals that more than 2-in-3 registered voters want border crossers sent back to Mexico. Only 33 percent said they want border crossers released into the U.S. interior.
The case is Texas v. Biden, No. 4:21-cv-00579-P in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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