Top US court rejects Republican challenge to Biden immigration policy

The United States Supreme Court has upheld the federal government's right to decide which undocumented asylum-seekers should be targeted for deportation.

In an 8-1 vote on Friday, the nation's highest court ruled that the states of Texas and Louisiana lacked the legal standing to challenge the federal government's policy.

Defending the policy of President Joe Biden's administration in court, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said the federal government has to prioritise its efforts because it does not have the resources to pursue the 11 million undocumented "noncitizens" in the country.

Texas and Louisiana filed suit after the Department of Homeland Security, in September 2021, instructed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to concentrate expulsion efforts on persons who "pose a threat to national security, public safety, and border security."

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who wrote the majority opinion, said the states had brought an "extraordinarily unusual lawsuit."

"They want a federal court to order the Executive Branch to alter its arrest policies so as to make more arrests," Kavanaugh said. "Federal courts have not traditionally entertained that kind of lawsuit."

He said if the court ruled in favour of the states it would lead to "expansive judicial direction of the Department's arrest policies."

"We could anticipate complaints in future years about alleged Executive Branch under-enforcement of any similarly worded laws - whether they be drug laws, gun laws, obstruction of justice laws, or the like," Kavanaugh said.

'Outrageous'

During arguments before the court in November, Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone said prioritising certain categories of persons for expulsion would impose costs on the state, which shares a border with Mexico and is an entry point for hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants every year.

"Texas suffers injuries, regardless of what it does, whether it detains, releases or paroles individuals because we have not only law enforcement costs, but social services costs and very serious threats of recidivism," Stone said.

Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, denounced the court's decision as "outrageous."

Abbott, who has been sending busloads of immigrants to Democratic-ruled states in recent months to protest the federal government's immigration policies, said the ruling gives the Biden administration complete freedom "to avoid accountability for abandoning enforcement of immigration laws."

But the American Civil Liberties Union, on the other hand, said the decision "soundly rejects the misguided attempt by Texas and Louisiana to force the government to implement the most draconian immigration enforcement policy."

The Biden administration's move to target individuals considered a threat to national security or public safety for deportation represented a shift from the policy of the administration of former president Donald Trump, which called for the expulsion of "all removable aliens."

The Biden policy was immediately challenged by several Republican-led states as being too narrow and was blocked by a court in Texas before reaching the Supreme Court.