Attorney General Moody Challenges Biden’s Latest Unlawful Policy Designed to Release Illegal Immigrants to the “Greatest Extent Possible”

TALLAHASSEE Fla. —Attorney General Ashley Moody is challenging the Biden administration’s latest attempt to skirt federal immigration law. In response to Attorney General Moody’s efforts to force the president to follow the law, secure the border and detain people unlawfully entering the country, the Biden administration disclosed a new policy designed to “utilize this processing pathway to the greatest extent possible.”  

Attorney General Moody has secured several federal court victories invalidating other unlawful actions by the Biden administration—but it has proven to be a game of whack-a-mole, as with each devastating defeat, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security simply enacts a new, unlawful policy to allow illegal immigrants to flood across the border in unprecedented numbers. 

Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “Biden’s will to violate public-safety immigration laws and release massive amounts of illegal immigrants into the country knows no bounds. After we beat Biden in federal court multiple times, his administration admitted to a new policy to skirt the law and release immigrants into the country. We are fighting back against this outrageous and unlawful Biden policy designed to further weaken our border security—making Americans less safe.”
 
This week, Attorney General Moody filed an amended complaint in the state’s case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.  The complaint highlights the latest DHS policy designed to mass release illegal immigrants into the interior by giving them a court date—often not for several years—and releasing them on their own recognizance. The Attorney General’s Office contends that federal law does not allow this not-so-clever work around and that these immigrants must be detained. 

The amended complaint reads in part, “As this Court recognized in Florida v. United States, DHS has encouraged mass migration through its unlawful policies and is releasing hundreds of thousands of aliens into the State of Florida. Currently, most of those releases are pursuant to the new NTA/OR Policy.” “The NTA/OR Policy was issued without the notice and comment procedures contemplated…The NTA/OR Policy ‘establishes a generally applicable policy to determine whether aliens are detained’ or released, and ‘instructs agents how to exercise their’ authority. Thus, the NTA/OR policy is subject to notice and comment.” 

To read the complaint in full, click here.

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