A federal judge in Florida struck down the Biden administration's unregulated and broad use of parole in order to mass-release illegal aliens into the interior of the United States.
Judge T. Kent Wetherell found the administration's use of parole unlawful and accused the Biden admin. of turning the U.S./Mexico border into a "meaningless line in the sand."
"Today's ruling affirms what we have known all along, President Biden is responsible for the border crisis and his unlawful immigration policies make this country less safe." - Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody
Fla. AG Ashley Moody originally launched the lawsuit alleging that the administration's use of the humanitarian parole to 'Alternatives to Detention' pipeline to release nearly one million illegal aliens into the U.S. violated the Immigration and Nationality Act and was thus against the law.
In what some have called a 'scathing' opinion released Wednesday, Judge Wetherell denounced President Biden's administration for "effectively turn[ing] the Southwest Border into a meaningless line in the sand and little more than a speedbump for aliens flooding into the country."
Additionally, Judge Wetherell stated that the administration's rules and policies designed to catch and release as many aliens as possible not only broke the law but had contributed to the degradation of the border as a means to keep illegal migrants out.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said in a statement following the ruling,
Today's ruling affirms what we have known all along, President Biden is responsible for the border crisis and his unlawful immigration policies make this country less safe. A federal judge is NOW ordering Biden to follow the law, and his administration should immediately begin securing the border to protect the American people.
According to the statute of U.S. immigration law that creates the concept of humanitarian parole, the practice must only be used on a "case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit." By law, all other illegal aliens must be detained until their immigration court decision determines whether they can stay or must be deported.
In her lawsuit on behalf of Florida, AG Moody contended that the federal government has and is currently violating statutory law that migrants be detained. In return, the Biden administration presented the weak argument that U.S. law lacks a "non-detention policy" and that the admin. is using its prosecutorial discretion.
Judge Wetherell's opinion read,
The evidence establishes that Defendants have effectively turned the Southwest Border into a meaningless line in the sand and little more than a speedbump for aliens flooding into the country by prioritizing "alternatives to detention" over actual detention and by releasing more than a million aliens into the country — on "parole" or pursuant to the exercise of "prosecutorial discretion" under a wholly inapplicable statute — without even initiating removal proceedings.
There is nothing inherently inhumane or cruel about detaining aliens pending completion of their immigration proceedings. [Emphasis added.]
Fox News reports, "Jeremy Redfern, deputy press secretary for Gov. Ron DeSantis, said the governor is 'acting to protect Floridians from Biden's border crisis.'" Redfern added,
Today, Judge Wetherell vindicated the governor's actions and ruled that the Biden administration is breaking federal immigration law by failing to fulfill the duties of his office and secure the nation's border. Thankfully, Governor DeSantis steps up to lead when national leaders fail.
Judge Wetherell determined that Florida had standing to challenge the dangerous federal catch-and-release policy because more than 100,000 illegal aliens have been released into the Sunshine State, which has then been forced to bear significant costs in providing public services to the aliens.
Biden's border crisis has placed the administration in between a proverbial 'rock and a hard place' as its policies now face potential legal action from both sides of the immigration-numbers debate.
Another lawsuit brought by several GOP states also says the admin. is violating statutory limits on the use of humanitarian parole by extending it to 30,000 aliens from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Cuba each month.
The Biden admin. could also face legal challenges from mass-immigration supporters over a recently announced asylum rule that supposedly makes aliens ineligible for asylum if they have entered the U.S. illegally and have also failed to claim asylum in a previous country through which they passed.
You can read the complete story at Fox News.
