Texas sues Homeland Security over border policy as judge grants Florida restraining order

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the Department of Homeland Security over its plan to release foreign nationals en masse into the U.S. without a court date to appear in immigration court.

The parole policy implemented by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has existed in several variations for nearly two years. It, and the policy of “catch and release,” was ruled to be illegal by a federal judge in a lawsuit brought against DHS by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on March 8.

On May 10, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz announced the agency was implementing a similar parole policy under a new name, prompting Moody to sue again on May 11. She also asked the court to halt the program. The court did, on the same day, issuing a temporary restraining order for 14 days. A hearing is scheduled for May 19.

Paxton sued Friday over the same policy in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas Victoria Division. He also asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order.

“There are no words that can fully describe the unmitigated catastrophe that Joe Biden has created on our southern border,” AG Paxton said. “What we are watching in real time is the systematic, deliberate, and intentional destruction of American border security. There’s simply no other explanation for what Biden is doing.

“As the number of daily border crossings hits record highs and Title 42 expires, the Biden Administration has announced they will release thousands of illegal immigrants every day — without even requiring a court date. To any reasonable American, this is insanity. Biden’s effort to subject Texas communities to the costs and chaos of unending, out-of-control illegal immigration will not go unchallenged, and we’re taking him to court to stop this unlawful policy.”

Instead of giving some illegal foreign nationals a court date to appear before an immigration judge before they are released into the U.S., the policy requires them to only provide a mailing address and promise to appear at an ICE facility within 60 days. When they arrive at the ICE facility at an unknown date is when they can request an immigration court date, according to the policy.

The 60-day deadline isn’t set in stone and illegal foreign nationals don’t have to appear in person. The timeframe can be longer than 60 days and they can request a court date by mail, according to the policy.

However, some foreign nationals released into the U.S. are being given courts date for 2026 and later, The Center Square previously reported.

DHS is expected to fight the lawsuit as it has in the Florida case.

However, the federal judge in Florida hasn’t accepted any of the Biden administration’s arguments at face value.

He’s argued the administration’s policies “were akin to posting a flashing ‘Come In, We’re Open’ sign on the southern border.” The administration’s argument that they have to release people into the U.S. instead of process them for removal, he said, is “like a child who kills his parents and then seeks pity for being an orphan.”

He said it was “hard to take Defendants’ claim that they had to release more aliens into the country because of limited detention capacity seriously when they have elected not to use one of the tools provided by Congress in §1225(b)(2)(C) and they have continued to ask for less detention capacity in furtherance of their prioritization of ‘alternatives to detention’ over actual detention.”

The lawsuits were filed as a record number of people from over 171 countries have poured through the southern border as the public health authority Title 42 came to a close on May 11, and as Texas counties and cities, and cities like Chicago, New York City, Washington, D.C., and others, have declared a state of emergency in response to the border crisis.