After the Supreme Court ruled that states lack standing to sue President Joe Biden’s administration for not enforcing federal immigration law, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says he will reinstate the agency’s so-called “sanctuary country” orders that shield most of the nation’s illegal aliens from arrest and deportation.
“We applaud the Supreme Court’s ruling,” Mayorkas said:
DHS looks forward to reinstituting these guidelines, which had been effectively applied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to focus limited resources and enforcement actions on those who pose a threat to our national security, public safety, and border security. The guidelines enable DHS to most effectively accomplish its law enforcement mission with the authorities and resources provided by Congress. [Emphasis added]
On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled in an 8-1 decision that “a citizen lacks standing to contest the policies of the prosecuting authority when he himself is neither prosecuted nor threatened with prosecution” and thus states lacked standing to sue over the orders.
Texas and Louisiana first filed suit against the Biden administration in April 2021 after DHS started imposing the orders that require Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to only prioritize arrests and deportations of illegal aliens who have been recently convicted of aggravated felonies, terrorists, or known gang members.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, Mayorkas said he will reinstate the orders to begin ensuring that most of the nation’s 11 to 22 million illegal aliens are not eligible for deportation.
Lora Ries, director of Heritage’s Border Security and Immigration Center, said the ruling “disregards the … costs that states have accrued” from illegal aliens not being detained and, thus, deported by ICE agents.
“… numerous other state lawsuits are pending against the Biden administration for similar costs from additional clear violations of immigration law,” Ries said. “Today’s decision raises worrisome questions as to the future of those cases and states’ ability to protect themselves and their residents.”
As Breitbart News reported, the orders were hugely impactful in terms of cutting the number of arrests and deportations of illegal aliens in Fiscal 2021 before federal courts stopped them from being implemented while the case was litigated up to the Supreme Court.
For example, before the orders were implemented, ICE agents were deporting about 121 illegal aliens every day. After the orders went into effect, ICE agents were left deporting just 65 illegal aliens every day.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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