A federal judge has indefinitely barred the administration of President Joe Biden from imposing a 100-day moratorium on most deportations.
Federal District Judge Drew Tipton issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday, requested by Texas, that argued that the moratorium violated federal law and ran the risk of imposing additional costs on the state.
Biden proposed the 100-day pause in deportations during his campaign as part of a broader review of immigration law enforcement and an attempt to reverse the priorities of former President Donald Trump.
Biden has proposed a comprehensive immigration bill that would allow the legalization of approximately 11 million people living illegally in the United States. It has also instituted other guidelines on who immigration and border agents should turn to for enforcement.
Tipton, a Trump appointee, initially ruled on Jan. 26 that the moratorium violated federal law on administrative procedures and that the United States failed to demonstrate why a deportation pause was warranted. A temporary restraining order issued by the judge expired Tuesday.
Tipton’s ruling did not require deportations to resume at the previous rate. Even without a moratorium, immigration agencies have wide latitude to enforce deportations and prosecute cases.
But in the days that followed his ruling, authorities deported 15 people to Jamaica and hundreds more to Central America. The Biden administration has also continued to expel immigrants under a separate process initiated by Trump officials, who invoked the public health law due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The legal fight for a deportation ban is an early sign of Republican opposition to Biden’s immigration priorities, just as Democrats and pro-immigrant legal groups fought Trump’s proposals.
Almost four years before Tipton’s order, Trump signed a travel ban from seven countries with predominantly Muslim populations that caused chaos at airports. Legal groups successfully sued to stop the implementation of the ban.
It was not immediately clear whether the Biden administration will appeal Tipton’s latest ruling. The Justice Department did not seek a stay of Tipton’s previous temporary restraining order.