Victory! Florida Catch and Release Case Presses On

Citing IRLI, court rejects administration’s motion to dismiss

 

WASHINGTON—After the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) has filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing against the dismissal of a Florida case challenging the Biden Administration’s policy of releasing illegal aliens into the United States rather than detaining or removing them, the federal district court hearing the case ordered the administration to respond to IRLI’s arguments. Earlier this week, in an opinion citing IRLI multiple times, the court denied the administration’s motion to dismiss, permitting the case against mass catch and release to proceed.

 

The court agreed with IRLI that the law requires the administration to detain illegal aliens it has caught entering the country illegally. As for the administration’s claims that it is lawfully releasing illegal aliens on parole, the court, citing IRLI’s brief, noted that the statute authorizing parole makes it available only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit, and found it extremely unlikely that the mass releases now occurring have resulted from this or any other case-by-case process.

 

The court also made short work of the administration’s claim that it has discretion to release illegal aliens regardless of what the law says. As IRLI had shown in its brief, Congress has given the executive branch no such authority, and the court found the administration’s “position as remarkable as it is wrong because it is well established that no one, not even the President, is above the law.” The court declared that if the administration is proven to be flouting the immigration laws, “the Court most certainly can (and will) do something about it.”

 

“It is becoming obvious to everyone that the Biden Administration has deliberately caused, and is intensifying, the mass resettlement of illegal aliens in the United States,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “That is the opposite of the result Congress intended when it passed the laws Biden is refusing to enforce. We applaud the court for its ringing affirmation of the rule of law, and its clear recognition of its duty to hold the administration to its statutory obligations.”

 

The case is Florida v. United States, No. 3:21-cv-1066 (N.D. Fla.).

 

For additional information, contact: Brian Lonergan • 202-232-5590 • [email protected]