Biden Administration Gets ICE’d in Court, Again

Handing Team Biden yet another legal defeat, a federal judge rejected administration policies that are limiting arrests and deportations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Calling Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas’ rules “arbitrary and capricious,” District Judge Drew Tipton wrote, “At times, agents and officers on the ground are forced to make quick decisions as they encounter individuals, and this scheme ties their hands.”

The evidence and ICE’s own statistics back up Judge Tipton, a Trump appointee. In fiscal year 2021, the agency reported the lowest number of deportations on record, even as illegal aliens surge across the border in unprecedented waves.

Despite the administration’s claims that it is focusing removal efforts on dangerous illegal aliens with criminal records, expulsions of such miscreants have declined sharply. Deportations of aliens with serious criminal convictions are down by two-thirds since 2019.

In addition, a recently leaked government report blasted the administration’s “Alternatives to Detention” program, finding that for all its “significant expenses,” the vast majority of participants have disappeared into the wind.

Amid this dismal performance, Mayorkas & Co. attempted to ram through their sketchy ICE protocols by skirting the legal requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Judge Tipton picked up on this dodgy behavior, citing the failure to obtain public and stakeholder comments on the policy changes.

This is not the first time a court has smacked down the administration. Federal judges previously blocked bids to end the Remain in Mexico and Title 42 expulsion programs. Tipton himself voided an earlier directive that limited immigration arrests. Now the judge is having to go over the same ground.

The administration’s claim that it is targeting criminal aliens for deportation is as risible as Mayorkas’ declaration that the border is “closed.” But the serial flouting of immigration law is neither a game nor a joke … though the White House continues to behave as if it is both.