In a June 23 ruling, the Supreme Court rejected Texas’ and Louisiana’s attempt to block the Biden administration’s immigration enforcement priority guidelines.
- The Biden administration’s guidelines instruct immigration enforcement agents to focus on arresting recent arrivals and those who pose public safety threats rather than those undocumented immigrants who have lived in this country for years.
- Texas and Louisiana argued that DHS should arrest and remove all undocumented immigrants without prioritization.
What they’re saying: The Supreme Court did not determine whether the guidelines themselves were lawful, but it ruled that the States did not have the authority to bring a lawsuit to force an increase in arrests, detentions, or deportations.
Go deeper: The Court referred to long-standing precedent that a citizen cannot sue to challenge the prosecuting authority’s policies unless that citizen himself was either prosecuted or threatened with prosecution. Based on this principle, the Court ruled that the States were not threatened with prosecution and, therefore, did not have the right to challenge the prosecutorial policies in court.
Erickson Insights
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