Ohio joins lawsuit fighting illegal immigration

Ohio has joined a federal lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s new federal immigration policy, which Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said stops nearly all deportations and handcuffs U.S. immigration officers.

Yost and attorneys general in Arizona and Montana want to stop the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law, which is scheduled to take effect Nov. 29. The lawsuit called the guidelines irrational and said they likely will increase a border crisis.

“Illegal drugs and criminals are pouring into our neighborhoods, and now the federal government wants law enforcement to sit by and do nothing,” Yost said. “This is reckless and it violates the law.”

More than 1.7 migrants were detained along the southwest U.S. border in fiscal year 2021, the highest total ever recorded, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Border Patrol apprehended more than 164,000 migrants the southwest border last month, the most for October in at least 21 years.

The Ohio House has called on the Biden administration to secure the nation’s southern border, saying in a resolution the battle against illegal drugs in the state begins at the border.

House Resolution 22, which passed 59-26, said the federal government fails to secure the southern border. In a news release, Reps. Tom Young, R-Washington Township, and Phil Plummer, R-Dayton, criticized the Biden administration’s discussion to provide $450,000 to each member of immigrant families who have been separated at the border while trying to cross illegally.

“Our federal government is talking about giving more money to individuals who are not even citizens of this county than we gave to the Americans that struggled through the tragedy of 9-11,” Young said.

Customs and Boarder Protection seized more than 289,000 pounds of marijuana, 89,000 pounds of cocaine, 5,400 pounds of heroin and 68,000 pounds of methamphetamine in 2019, according to the news release.

“We have an opioid crisis in Ohio,” Plummer said. “These illegal drugs are sold, spread and used throughout the county as drug overdoses and abuse rates reach the highest levels on record. We can stop the crisis, but it starts at our borders.”

The resolution heads to the Senate.