A federal lawsuit to force the Biden administration to complete border wall projects funded by Congress during the Trump administration will continue despite a Supreme Court decision that blocked state immigration challenges.
Legal action that Missouri and Texas took to mandate that the U.S. government carry out several billions of dollars worth of canceled barrier installments on the U.S.-Mexico border will proceed even after the highest court ruled Friday that Louisiana and Texas didn't have a legal right to sue the Biden administration over immigration enforcement.
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"Missouri remains confident with our case, especially after Justice Kavanaugh noted that the case handed down today was 'extraordinarily unusual.' Our case forcing Biden to finish Trump’s border wall will move forward," said Maddie Sieren, communications director for Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
The Supreme Court decided in an 8-1 decision Friday to overturn a 2022 federal court decision that had sided with Louisiana and Texas that the states had no business interfering in how the White House carried out federal immigration policies.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh described the Texas and Louisiana suit as "extraordinarily unusual" for how it sought to "order the executive branch to alter its arrest policies so as to make more arrests." The ruling set in place new limitations on political lawsuits filed by states over federal matters.
But the Supreme Court's ruling will not have any impact on the state lawsuit that was revived only last week.
Immigrant advocates and politicians, such as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, applauded the court's decision to rein in states and reinstate its protocols for who to arrest and deport.
“We applaud the Supreme Court’s ruling," Mayorkas wrote in a statement. "[The Department of Homeland Security] looks forward to reinstituting these Guidelines, which had been effectively applied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to focus limited resources and enforcement actions on those who pose a threat to our national security, public safety, and border security."
The liberal American Immigration Council issued a stern warning for states to stay out of law enforcement practices.
“Today’s decision on enforcement priorities upholds the common-sense principle that courts should not interfere with decisions by law enforcement agencies," the AIC said in a statement. "By rejecting Texas’ standing to bring the lawsuit, the Supreme Court is sending a powerful message that courts should not be in the business of directing law enforcement’s decision-making and should give pause to states contemplating using the courts to drive a political strategy.”
The American Civil Liberties Union applauded the court for intervening in the "misguided attempt by those states to force the government to implement a much harsher policy."
Because more than 11 million people in the United States are illegally present, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has had to prioritize for years who it will attempt to arrest, typically focusing on people with criminal backgrounds, but sometimes officers encounter illegal immigrants without convictions or charges filed, and they may arrest them.
ICE officers were instructed in 2021 to obtain permission from superiors before taking anyone into custody. The only exceptions for which officers had not needed approval were if they arrested people who had engaged in or were suspected of terrorism or espionage, who illegally crossed the land border on or after Nov. 1, 2020, and those convicted of, not just arrested or charged with, an aggravated felony, as well as those involved in criminal gangs or transnational criminal organizations, such as MS-13.
Under former President Donald Trump, ICE officers were told to focus efforts on any illegal immigrant, including those arrested after driving under the influence or charged with other less violent crimes. Since February, ICE officers have had to go through an internal approval process by management before going into communities and arresting specific immigrants if they do not meet the three criteria.
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ICE arrests have dropped significantly over the past decade. Nearly 300,000 people were arrested during fiscal 2009, compared to 143,000 in 2022.
The justices ruled separately Friday to uphold a law that makes it a crime for someone to encourage illegal immigration and in doing so sided with the Biden administration in a case that the punishment infringed upon free speech rights.