DALLAS — The Biden administration’s 100-day freeze on certain deportations was temporarily halted by a federal judge Tuesday in an early legal contest from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, put a 14-day pause on the administration’s moratorium in order to consider a lawsuit filed Friday by Paxton.
In the order Tuesday, Tipton said Texas had a ”substantial likelihood” of prevailing on two of its six claims, including that the 100-day freeze on deportations violated a federal immigration law that says final deportation orders shall be executed within 90 days.
Paxton immediately took to Twitter to celebrate, saying, “Victory. Texas is the first state in the nation to bring a lawsuit against the Biden administration. And we won. Within six days of Biden’s inauguration, Texas has halted his illegal deportation freeze.”
Paxton added in the tweet, “This was a seditious left-wing insurrection. And my team and I stopped it.”
Kate Huddleston, an attorney for the ACLU of Texas, said the lawsuit should not be allowed to proceed in a press release, and noted that Paxton’s lawsuit follows his recent efforts at overturning the 2020 election results.
“The voters rejected the Trump administration’s disastrous immigration policies, but Texas is now seeking to keep the Biden administration from turning the page,” said Cody Wofsy, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “This initial, tentative, and hasty decision is incorrect, and we are confident it will be set aside as the case proceeds.”
This follows an eventful, executive-order-filled first week for President Joe Biden. Shortly after Biden’s inauguration, acting Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske issued a memo that laid out interim policies, including a 100-day pause on certain deportations that started Friday.
The memo also ordered DHS’ chief of staff to review policies over a 100-day stretch and return with recommended revisions upon the completion of the review. The department-wide memo applied to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and Citizenship and Immigration Services agencies.
Thursday evening, Paxton issued a letter to Pekoske, saying, “you must immediately rescind the January 20 Memorandum” and threatened DHS with a lawsuit if they failed to do so. The lawsuit was filed by Friday afternoon.
“I told the Department of Homeland Security and Joe Biden last night to rescind its deportation freeze, which is unconstitutional, illegal, and bad for Texas and the nation,” Paxton wrote in a tweet. “They didn’t budge. So Texas is bringing them to court.”
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