The Supreme Court ruled 8–1 on June 23 that Texas and Louisiana lack the legal standing needed to challenge the Biden administration’s 2021 decision to focus its deportation efforts on individuals deemed to be a threat to public safety.

Texas and Louisiana sued the Biden administration over a policy announced in a Sept. 30, 2021, memorandum (pdf) by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that claims it is impossible to remove the estimated 11 million illegal aliens present in the United States. Mayorkas has been heavily criticized by Republicans for his allegedly lax approach to immigration enforcement. Some Republicans want to impeach him for dereliction of duty.

The states argue that the federal government is illegally refusing to enforce the nation’s immigration laws by prioritizing only certain enforcement categories at the expense of others. They say that the federal Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) requires that specific criminal aliens, such as aggravated felons, have to be detained upon release from criminal custody pending a decision on whether to remove them from the country. The law also requires that aliens subject to final orders of removal must be detained pending their removal.

But instead of adhering to the INA’s mandates, the Biden administration said in a memorandum that it would embark on case-by-case determinations instead, which the states say leaves the door open for violent criminals to return to the nation’s streets.

The majority opinion in the case, United States v. Texas (court file 22-58), was written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The sole dissenting opinion was filed by Justice Samuel Alito.

“Keeping our citizens safe is one of the most fundamental duties of government, perhaps even the most fundamental. The Biden Administration has tried to ignore that duty, but we’re fighting every single day to remind them,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Nov. 29, 2022, the day the case was heard by the court.

This is a developing story. This article will be updated.