Two states challenging the Biden administration’s decision last year to focus its deportation efforts on individuals deemed to be a threat to public safety urged the Supreme Court during oral arguments on Nov. 29 not to restore the policy.
The states take the position that the federal government is illegally refusing to enforce the nation’s immigration laws by prioritizing only certain enforcement categories at the expense of others. They say that the federal Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) requires that specific criminal aliens, such as aggravated felons, have to be detained upon release from criminal custody pending a decision on whether to remove them from the country. The law also requires that aliens subject to final orders of removal must be detained pending their removal.
