A federal judge blocked the Biden administration from carrying out parts of its latest immigration plan in a Thursday night ruling that came as tens of thousands of migrants amassed at the southern border, reports Politico. Siding with Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell ordered the federal government to stand down from its proposed move to “parole” migrants crossing the southern border through Texas. The Biden administration has been preparing for a substantial influx of arrivals ahead of the COVID-era Title 42 rules expiring at midnight Thursday. Wetherell determined that he “fails to see a material difference” between the Biden administration’s new parole policy and the one the judge determined was unconstitutional in March.
The Thursday ruling builds on a previous lawsuit filed by Florida against the Biden administration that asserted authorities were ignoring a federal law requiring migrants entering the U.S. illegally to be detained. That lawsuit criticized a parole and “alternatives to detention” policy dating from November 2021 and since modified. “… In both instances, aliens are being released into the country on an expedited basis without being placed in removal proceedings and with little to no vetting and no monitoring,” said Wetherell, who was appointed by former President Trump. Attorneys for the Biden administration had urged Wetherell to deny Florida’s attempt to block the polices they contend are “necessary to address an imminent and dramatic increase [of[] arrivals at the southwest border.” Florida is attempting to get Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other federal officials — to explain how their latest immigration plan does not violate the earlier court ruling.