CHARLESTON, WV (LOOTPRESS) — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, along with his counterparts in 18 other states, has filed an amicus brief in support of a challenge to the Biden administration’s bid to let the Department of Homeland Security implement a policy that sets enforcement priorities, after lower courts blocked it as part of a legal challenge brought by Texas and Louisiana.
“The situation in our southern border is a mess, to say the least, because of the failed policies of this administration,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “We are seeing an unprecedented number of illegal border crossings, and we’re feeling the effects in terms of human trafficking and the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs that flood into states such as West Virginia. This is a crisis, even if the administration steadfastly will not describe it as such.”
The coalition is supporting Texas’ and Louisiana’s opposition to the federal government’s application for a stay regarding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s dangerous Permanent Guidance. The immigration policy halts nearly all arrests and deportations, even for those convicted of crimes, and drastically ties the hands of immigration officers.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued the rule purporting to give immigration law enforcement officials discretion over detaining certain classes of criminal illegal immigrants. However, federal law mandates detention of these immigrants, and the president has no discretion to order otherwise.
A U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas judge stopped that rule last month, and a federals appeals court declined to reverse the judge’s ruling. The case is now being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court—the Biden administration is asking SCOTUS to temporarily lift the judge’s ruling in full, or “at a minimum,” to limit the ruling’s effect to only within Texas and Louisiana.
The federal government is also asking the justices to schedule oral arguments in the case for the fall.
“The Biden administration’s open border policy is a disaster and order needs to be restored to our southern border,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “This blatant disregard for the safety of our nation must cease, it threatens the safety and wellbeing of law-abiding Americans.”
The coalition argues, “In the last 17 months, the volume of unlawful immigration has soared to levels unseen in the United States in decades—and, quite likely, ever. So too have the resulting burdens placed on the States.”
West Virginia joined the brief with Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming.
Read a copy of the brief at: https://bit.ly/3z0Sf4K.
