A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s order barring most deportations from the United States. Biden’s order would have paused deportations for 100 days. The order, which came in response to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit, was issued by a federal court in South Texas.
Elissa Steglich is co-director and professor at the University of Texas Immigration Clinic at the UT School of Law. She told Texas Standard that Paxton based his lawsuit on an agreement between Texas and the Trump administration, which gave the state a 180-day comment period on any changes to federal immigration enforcement before new policies go into effect.
“The judge does not address the agreement at all in his decision,” Steglich said. “Which I think questions its validity. But it does look to the state’s challenges under the Administrative Procedures Act.”
Steglich says the judge considered the potential financial harm Texas could face in the event deportations were stopped, as well as the APA’s procedural provisions.
Under the ruling, the Biden administration can continue to halt deportations on a case-by-case basis, Steglich says.
The temporary injunction lasts 14 days.
“The judge seemed very eager to see more evidence and hear more arguments before deciding whether to send the injunction through the resolution of the case,” Steglich said.
