The attorneys general of 20 states have joined forces to prevent the Biden administration from relying on “sue-and-settle” maneuvers to skirt accountability for the president’s border policies.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen are leading the coalition supporting five intervenor states.
The 20 amici states—Montana, Florida, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia—are focused on the right of states to defend statutes implemented to protect themselves from the adverse effects of illegal immigration.
The term describes when federal agencies accept a settlement agreement in a lawsuit filed by a special interest group to establish precedence and policies outside the traditional rulemaking process.
The federal agency intentionally abdicates statutory discretion by committing to the timelines and preferences of the special interest group, which frequently alters the agency’s duties. Negotiations for these agreements take place behind closed doors with no input from the public or those directly affected by the agreement.
For example, instead of upholding existing immigration rules, the Biden administration has pursued back-door settlement agreements with open border organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to dissolve the 2018 “zero-tolerance policy“ implemented by former President Donald Trump.
The pathways rule also allows DHS to deny entry to illegal immigrants who have been “denied asylum in a third country through which they traveled,” and who “are presumed ineligible for asylum unless they meet certain limited exceptions.”
Florida Attorney General Moody criticized the Biden administration, saying in a statement that it “has systematically broken down our public-safety immigration structure through both implementing illegal asylum programs and outright ignoring existing law.
“The idea that states would blindly allow this administration to negotiate behind closed doors with activist organizations is ludicrous. States have a right to be party to any settlement negotiations that will dictate border policy because we have an interest in protecting the safety of our citizens and the resources of our communities.”
Montana Attorney General Knudson noted that President Joe Biden’s border policies have not just compromised the security of Montana but have endangered the citizens of every state.
“President Biden’s failure to follow the law and secure the southern border is wreaking havoc on communities in Montana and across the country,” he said.
“The crisis at the border has become so bad that every state is now a border state. Rather than defend a rule that protects states from the adverse effects of illegal immigration—like illicit drugs and crime, the Biden administration is in settlement negotiations with left-wing, open-border activists.
“I’m proud to support my colleagues’ efforts to stop these collusive sue-and-settle practices.”
“The amicus brief was in support of the motion on March 7 by Louisiana, Alabama, Kansas, Georgia, and W. Virginia to intervene in a lawsuit in the District of Columbia,” the press secretary for Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told The Epoch Times in a statement.
“The reason we didn’t join the amicus is because we are the party that the amicus was in support of, so we couldn’t join.”
The High Costs of Illegal Immigration
Immigration remains a sensitive and potentially destructive issue politically for President Biden, who is currently struggling in the polls against former President Donald Trump.A Gallup poll released on Feb. 29 showed that illegal immigration had surpassed the economy and the government as the most important problem cited by American citizens. Twenty-eight percent said immigration is “the most important problem facing this country today.”
Another 20 percent said the government was the biggest problem, while just 12 percent cited the economy and only 11 percent said the same about inflation.
A survey released by the Pew Research Center on Feb. 15 showed that the overwhelming majority of Americans (80 percent) believe the Biden administration is doing a bad job handling the border crisis. That includes 49 percent who say it’s doing a “very bad” job.
A nearly equal number of Americans (78 percent) believe that the large number of illegal aliens trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border is either a crisis (45 percent) or a major problem (32 percent). A majority (58 percent) also believe that current immigration policies are making it easier for illegal immigrants to stay in America once they get in.
In response to an open-ended question about what specifically concerned them the most, 22 percent cited economic burdens posed by illegal immigrants on American taxpayers and 22 percent cited security concerns such as crime, terrorism, and drugs.
In Texas, 16-year-old Lizbeth Medina was allegedly stabbed to death in a bathtub by an illegal immigrant on Dec. 25, 2023.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, allegedly killed 22-year-old Laken Riley while she was jogging on the University of Georgia campus. She sustained a blow to the head so severe that it disfigured her skull.
Brandon Ortiz-Vite, an illegal immigrant who had been deported back to Mexico in 2020, was arrested and charged with the murder of 25-year-old Ruby Garcia in Michigan on March 26.
In Ohio, 46-year-old Fermin Garcia-Gutierrez—a Mexican national who had been arrested and deported numerous times using seven different aliases and three different birth dates—was detained on an ICE holder and incarcerated in the Butler County Jail on April 6.
‘It’s Very Problematic’
Joe Edlow is a visiting fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation.In an interview with The Epoch Times, he said the government’s willingness to settle the matter with plaintiffs is not in the interest of these states.
“Plaintiffs like the ACLU and other open-border advocates believe the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule is too harsh and inappropriate for this administration to put forward and have sued to block it,” he explained.
And while the Justice Department was very much in favor of defending the position of the government, they have now signaled a willingness to open settlement negotiations with the plaintiffs who are suing them.
“This is very concerning,” Mr. Edlow said. “What you’re seeing here is almost collusion between the Department of Justice and these plaintiff’s groups to end this rule.
It’s very problematic that the DOJ might be colluding with plaintiffs to settle this matter, he said further, adding that it should not be allowed.
“The Department of Justice should defend the government’s position and should continue to defend this lawsuit and I am very thankful that we have so many active attorneys general throughout the country that are willing to make this stand,” he said. “They are saying if the federal government is not going to stand up and do what’s in our best interest for our people and our population, we need to take action, and that’s what they have done. I wholeheartedly support them in that.”
