Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said the lawsuit his state filed against the Biden administration over its early immigration decisions is seeking to compel the federal government to “actually follow the law.”
“These are the most threatening folks. They are criminal convicted aliens. And they are not even doing that. You cannot totally default on your responsibility to enforce the law under the Constitution.”
These priorities include narrowing immigration enforcement to three categories: individuals who have been engaged in or suspected of terrorism or espionage; immigrants who crossed into the United States illegally on or after Nov. 1, 2020; and individuals convicted of an “aggravated felony.”
The guidelines were established by two memoranda—known as the Jan. 20 memo and Feb. 18 memo—that modified the way federal immigration and other law enforcement agencies would operate.
At the time, the department justified its decision by saying that “DHS cannot respond to all immigration violations or remove all persons unlawfully in the United States” due to limited resources.
DeSantis characterized the policy changes as “reckless.”
“Normally, when we'd have a criminal alien, convicted of a felony, they obviously served their sentence in Florida state prison. And prior to the Joe Biden administration, ICE would take control of them when they finish their sentence and remove the criminal alien and send them back to the home country,” he said.
“That should be like clockwork. That is the biggest no-brainer there is.”
He also expressed concern that, due to the memos, the administration is no longer honoring ICE detainers and that criminal aliens are being released into the community.
The attorneys general argue that the memoranda failed to prioritize detention of criminal aliens with final orders of removal, criminal aliens convicted of drug offenses, or criminal aliens convicted of crimes of moral turpitude.
The result of implementing the two memoranda, the lawsuit argues, has led to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rescinding detainer requests related to incarcerated criminal aliens, not issuing detainer requests for illegal aliens subject to mandatory removal, and the release of such individuals from federal detention facilities in Louisiana and Texas.