In the United States, the Supreme Court validates the Biden administration’s deportation policy

A border patrol between the United States and Mexico, in November 2018.

This is a clear victory for the government of Joe Biden. The very conservative US Supreme Court authorized him on Friday June 23 to apply the priorities of his choice in terms of deporting undocumented migrants. With a majority of eight out of nine judges, the court rejected on procedural grounds an appeal brought by the states of Texas and Louisiana, held by elected Republicans.

This ruling allows for the entry into force of a directive adopted in September 2021 by the Minister of Internal Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, which asked the Immigration Police (ICE) to focus its efforts on foreigners who pose a terrorist or criminal threat , and on those arriving after 1um November 2020.

More than eleven million illegal immigrants live in the United States and there are n “the resources to arrest and deport each one [d’entre eux] »he had justified, taking the opposite position of former Republican president Donald Trump.

These new instructions were immediately challenged in court by Texas and Louisiana. The two states had argued that these measures would cause them additional costs in education, policing and social services. A federal judge ruled in their favor in June 2022 and blocked the implementation of this policy. Joe Biden’s government then turned to the Supreme Court, which in the end agreed with him without going into the merits.

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One of the main themes of the 2024 presidential campaign

“States wanted federal justice to order the executive branch to change its arrest policy to make more arrests”but the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that only people targeted by a policy of arrests can challenge it, says Magistrate Brett Kavanaugh on behalf of the majority.

“In application of this fundamental principle (…)we conclude that States do not have standing to make this complaint”Adds. “The decision must not be understood as suggesting that the Executive has full freedom” in this regard, he would like to add, leaving the door open to future complaints.

The powerful civil rights group ACLU was happy the Supreme Court had “judiciously” the efforts of Texas and Louisiana were rejected “force the government to implement the most draconian policy possible” in matters of expulsion.

The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, however, has denounced on Twitter a “scandalous decision”. The supreme court “gives carte blanche to the Biden administration”he wrote, vowing to continue deploying his state’s national guard to push back migrants at the Mexican border.

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Illegal arrivals at the US southern border had hit an all-time high before immigration rules changed six weeks ago and remain high: nearly 170,000 arrests in May. The topic is highly controversial and is expected to be a major theme of the 2024 presidential campaign.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Immigration to the United States: Joe Biden restricts access to asylum

The world with AFP

By James Brown

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