By Bethany Blankley (The Center Square)
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said Monday that the Biden administration had received a “bombshell of new evidence” that his office had “wrongfully withheld” just days before going to trial.
His office last year sued the Biden administration over changes to federal immigration deportation policy, including expanding the parole program. announced Last week they planned to expand. Moody is asking the court to halt the administration’s implementation of the policy, arguing it violates federal law and is unconstitutional.
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Her team presented new evidence Monday as part of Florida case The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida’s Pensacola Division “wrongfully withheld the federal government from proceeding,” he said.
His office only obtained the information through a Freedom of Information Act request, he said, when it should have been received during the discovery process. If her office hadn’t filed the FOIA request, she said, “the damning evidence to compel the Biden administration to follow the law, secure the border and protect the American people would not have come to light or become part of the state’s major litigation.”
Moody is referring to the transcripts Four pages Emails obtained from her office by the Department of Homeland Security include elements of officials talking to Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz to discuss the mass release of illegal aliens into the US. The emails were dated Jan. 28, 2021, eight days after Biden took office.
The talking points are consistent with testimony Ortiz gave in a deposition last year Confirmed There was a border crisis and agents required To release people en masse to the US
One email describes the situation agents faced in response to the Biden administration ending Trump-era policies designed to curb illegal immigration. It states, “The break in processing pathways (MPP, ACA, PACR) and recent policy changes have impacted USBP’s ability to expeditiously process and remove facing … USBP is required to expeditiously process and release family units and single adults. Lack of judgment channels.”
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It refers to an administration that no longer adheres to immigrant protection protocols, otherwise known as the Remain in Mexico policy held by a federal court. required Administration continues. Texas sued the MPP and the case is still in litigation.
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The ACA references the Trump-era Asylum Cooperation Agreement that DHS entered into with the governments of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras on December 29, 2020. The agreement allowed the federal government to more easily “remove certain eligible immigrants seeking humanitarian protection. Each of the ACA countries.” PACR stands for Fast-Track Asylum Review Process (Prompt Asylum Claim Review), which has helped expedite this process.
Biden’s reversal of these policies contributed to an unprecedented number of people trying to enter the US from Northern Triangle countries. Most are not believed to have valid asylum claims, argue Moody et al. After the federal government released them and flew them nationwide at midnight, Florida sued, including in Jacksonville.
Since Biden has been in office, over 5 million Foreign nationals have reportedly been detained or evaded capture by law enforcement 3.3 million In FY 2022 only. Unless the courts rule in many cases against the administration and enforce their judgments, these numbers are expected to increase astronomically.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced last week that he plans to process and release even more people to the U.S. after the Public Health Authority’s Title 42 is lifted, saying the “border is closed.”
Notably, one of the talking points in the email thread states, “Mexico recently passed a law preventing Mexican immigrants from detaining children, even if they are accompanied by adults/relatives/parents. This further affects BP’s ability to discharge family units under CDC T42 authority.
The email suggests Mexican law is dictating US immigration detention and deportation policies, critics told The Center Square, and also offers insight into Mayorcas changing Title 42 enforcement policies to rarely deport family units.
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In January 2021, the email says BP agents are experiencing more than 3,000 apprehensions per day, and the continued surge of unaccompanied minors and family units “immediately overwhelms USBP’s short-term detention capacity … with increased risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Instead of detaining or deporting family units with the coronavirus, agents were instructed to release them, prompting Democratic-run cities like Laredo to sue. Texas counties filed disaster declarations on the policy in April 2021, and Texas Governor Abbott issued a disaster declaration on May 31, 2021.
“The documents obtained by his office through our aggressive litigation efforts prove that the Biden administration’s disastrous immigration policies are creating a public safety crisis — just eight days before he took office,” Moody says. Actions and words will continue to be used against them.
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.
