WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th May, 2021) The US states of Arizona and Montana on Friday filed a motion to halt interim guidance that would limit enforcement actions targeting certain groups of illegal immigrants.
In February, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a memorandum that prioritized for removal only perceived national security threats, aggravated felons, and recent illegal border-crossers.
"Plaintiffs [States of Montana and Arizona] respectfully request that the Court issue a preliminary injunction preventing Defendants from implementing the Interim Guidance as it relates to removals," the motion said.
Congress, the document said, has directed the US Homeland Security Department to remove illegal aliens within 90 days of a final order of removal to protect states from the costs of illegal immigration. The law, the states argued, does not carve out categories of aliens for whom removal is "presumptively unwarranted."
The plaintiffs in the motion claim that the interim guidance became the reason the number of removals dropped by 50 percent to less than 3,000 per month, the lowest level of removals recorded.
The plaintiffs pointed out that "a near absolute" prohibition of removals was in fact enacted by the Acting ICE Director Tae Johnson on February 4 when he emailed senior staff a document with the updated removal priorities due to "limited resources."
