WASHINGTON—Last evening, the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) filed a friend-of-the-court brief in opposition to the Biden administration’s emergency application to the Supreme Court to stay—that is, suspend—a Texas federal district court ruling vacating its policy of releasing vast numbers of dangerous alien criminals, rather than detaining and deporting them as the law requires. Earlier, the Fifth Circuit Court of appeals denied a petition for a stay the administration had made to its court.
The administration claims that Congress has stripped federal courts of jurisdiction to hear the case, and thus the district court had no authority to issue its ruling. In its brief, IRLI refutes this claim, showing that the jurisdiction-stripping statute in question does not apply to orders, such as the one in this case, that vacate a policy rather than provide injunctive relief.
“If the administration wins its stay, it will go on releasing criminal aliens while its appeal of the district court’s ruling winds through the courts,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “That outcome would be unacceptable from a public-safety standpoint alone. And it is also vitally important that states, which bear the brunt of immigration law-enforcement failures, have an avenue for holding the administration to account in the courts. We hope the Supreme Court agrees with the Fifth Circuit, and denies the administration the extra time it wants to violate the law and endanger Americans.”
The case is United States v. Texas, No. 22A17 (Supreme Court).
