This Issue: Florida Judge strikes down Biden Administration's abuse of humanitarian parole at the border

Fri, Mar. 10th

Federal Judge T. Kent Wetherell blew up the Biden Administration's catch-and-release policy in a ruling on Wednesday. Judge Wetherell ruled that the Biden Administration's use of parole combined with Alternatives to Detention (ATD) for most illegal border crossers is illegal and has turned the Southwest border into a "meaningless line in the sand."

The State of Florida is challenging the policy since thousands of illegal border crossers who have received parole have been relocated by the administration to the state.

Judge Wetherell ordered the administration to stop the policy, but stayed the order for 7 days giving the administration time to appeal the decision.

Under federal law, the executive branch has limited parole authority, but Biden officials have used the executive authority to grant parole (with work permits) to hundreds of thousands of illegal border crossers who claim that they have a credible fear of being returned back to their home country.

According to federal law:

The parole of aliens ... would generally be justified only on a case-by-case basis for "urgent humanitarian reasons" or "significant public benefit," provided the aliens present neither a security risk nor a risk of absconding...

Most illegal border crossers do not have "urgent humanitarian reasons" nor provide a "significant public benefit." Not to mention, the majority of asylum claims that were decided in FY2022 were denied. According to Syracuse University's TRAC project that tracks immigration enforcement statistics, 53% of the claims were rejected.

The administration knows this, and yet they still grant parole and a work permit to asylum seekers and release them into the interior of the country. By doing this, they further encourage would-be migrants to come to the U.S. illegally.

Federal law requires that the Department of Homeland Security detain most asylum seekers who enter the country without authorization. Rep. Chip Roy's (R-Texas) H.R. 29, the Border Safety and Security Act, would force DHS to either detain or immediately remove any individual who enters illegally and can't be detained.

"There is nothing inherently inhumane or cruel about detaining aliens pending completion of their immigration proceedings," Judge Wetherell wrote in his ruling.

While the Biden Administration will likely appeal the decision, just a few weeks ago, it announced a proposed rule that would double down on its parole policy. The rule would allow unauthorized aliens to apply for parole before entering the United States instead of crossing the border illegally.

It has also discussed sending asylum adjudicators to the border to make asylum decisions on the spot rather than having immigration judges make the determination.

But until the Biden Administration does something that actually discourages unauthorized aliens from coming to the U.S. in the first place, the ongoing crisis will only continue.