The US supreme court said on Friday it will stop standing in the way of a long-blocked Biden administration policy to prioritize the deportation of immigrants who are deemed to pose the greatest public safety risk or were picked up at the US-Mexico border.
The justices rejected a challenge from some Republican-led states to a policy that, the administration said, recognizes there is not enough money or workers to deport all 11 million-plus people whom the government deems to be in the United States illegally.
The states in the case, US v Texas, had argued that federal immigration law requires authorities to detain and deport even those who pose little or no risk.
At the center of the case is a September 2021 directive from the Department of Homeland Security that paused deportations unless individuals had committed acts of terrorism, espionage or “egregious threats to public safety”. The guidance, issued after Joe Biden became president, updated a Trump-era policy to remove people in the country illegally regardless of criminal history or community ties.
The justices on the nine-member bench of America’s highest court ruled 8-1 in favor of the administration’s appeal of a judge’s ruling that had halted DHS guidelines narrowing the scope of those who can be targeted by immigration agents for arrest and deportation.
The Republican attorneys general in Texas and Louisiana had filed suit to challenge Biden’s policy. The justices determined that the two states did not have legal standing to bring that challenge.
The guidelines reflected Biden’s recalibration of US immigration policy after the hardline approach taken by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, who sought to broaden the range of immigrants subject to arrest and removal.
Biden’s policy prioritized apprehending and deporting non-US citizens who pose a threat to national security, public safety or border security, giving agents more discretion to consider individual circumstances.
The conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh, who authored the ruling, wrote that lawsuits alleging that the government has made insufficient arrests or prosecutions “run up against” the authority of the executive branch to enforce federal law.
“The executive branch – not the judiciary – makes arrests and prosecutes offenses on behalf of the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote. The right-leaning justice Samuel Alito, who is currently embroiled in an ethics scandal, dissented.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had brought an amicus brief in the case.
“This decision sounds rejects the misguided attempt by Texas and Louisiana to force the government to implement the most draconian immigration enforcement policy,” Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s immigrants’ rights project, said in a statement.
In another immigration-related ruling on Friday, the supreme court overturned a lower court’s decision invalidating a federal law that makes it a crime for a person to encourage illegal immigration. Biden’s administration had defended the law and the case was argued on the basis of constitutional free speech protections.
The case, US v Hansen, produced a 7-2 ruling that concerns a man who ran an allegedly illegal adoption scheme aimed at gaining citizenship for foreign nationals.
Republicans have criticized Biden as weak on immigration policy, saying his policies including fewer detentions and deportations have encouraged more illegal border crossings. Immigration advocates have excoriated Biden’s hardening stance as inhumane and a volte face on his election campaigning on a more fair and compassionate system.