Victory! Biden Non-Enforcement Enjoined Nationwide

Press Releases

March 22, 2022

Court agrees with IRLI that standing down is not an option

WASHINGTON—Today an Ohio federal district court granted a preliminary injunction, sought by Arizona, Montana, and Ohio, against the Biden administration policy of detaining and removing far fewer criminal aliens than had the previous administration. The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) had filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case urging that result.

In its brief, IRLI had shown that the language Congress used when it directed that criminal aliens be detained and removed from the country is mandatory, leaving no discretion to the executive to exempt and release the great majority of these aliens, as the administration has done.

Today the court agreed, finding it significant that, as IRLI had pointed out, Congress makes the laws, and the executive is supposed to carry them out—not make its own laws opposed to those of Congress.

“There is a good reason the law says that aliens who turn out to be criminals should be removed,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “Many of them Biden has let go are dangerous, and Americans’ safety is very much at stake. We applaud the court for reading the law the only way it can be read, and vow to continue putting as much legal pressure on the administration to do its sworn duty as possible.”

The case is Arizona v. Biden, No. 3:21-cv-314 (S.D. Ohio).

Photo credit: U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement

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