Texas Sues to Stop Biden’s Deportation Halt

Texas argued to a federal court Sunday that ICE is now actively releasing immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally into the state, bolstering its demand that a judge step in and order a delay to President Biden’s new temporary deportation amnesty.

The lawsuit by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit, filed and argued in a snap hearing Friday and supplemented in new briefs this weekend, is the first in what’s expected to be a stream of litigation against Mr. Biden and his set of opening-week executive actions.

“Defendants’ refusal to remove illegal aliens is directly leading to the immediate release of additional illegal aliens in Texas,” Mr. Paxton argued in his latest filing Sunday.

The deportation pause, which Mr. Biden promised during the campaign and which he had Homeland Security announced last week, is among the most contentious, with the Center for Immigration Studies saying it carves 85% of undocumented immigrants with criminal records out of risk of deportation.

Some undocumented immigrants who have been in sanctuary for years are leaving their hideouts, confident Mr. Biden’s team will grant them a free pass — including Francisca Lino, who’d been shut in at Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago for more than three years.

The Biden policy stops deportations except for national security threats, people deemed to have crossed the border after Nov. 1, 2020, and cases of “aggravated felony.” Jessica Vaughan at the Center for Immigration Studies said that’s even more generous than President Obama’s policy.

Ms. Vaughan calculated that just 15% of migrants awaiting deportation are aggravated felons.

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