Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a lawsuit on Monday against the Biden administration, arguing that they are ignoring a federal law that requires the federal government to detain and deport aliens who have committed crimes in our country. Alabama, Florida, and Georgia have filed the lawsuit.
Marshall joined Florida and Georgia in filing the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. The States are seeking an order that would halt the administration’s policy of releasing criminal aliens communities, stating that the policy threatens the safety of Americans while further undermining our country’s border security.
“For more than three decades, a bipartisan majority of Congress has made law that the Executive Branch should arrest, detain, and remove all felon criminal aliens,” stated Marshall. “Congress was justifiably concerned that deportable criminal aliens who are not detained continue to engage in crime and fail to appear for their removal proceedings in large numbers. Furthermore, Congress intended that those arrested and ordered removed by an immigration judge were actually deported. What’s more, officials in previous administrations of both political parties have agreed that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has to prioritize the removal of criminal aliens, and the United States Supreme Court has held that immigration officials ‘must arrest those aliens guilty of a predicate offense,’” argued Marshall.
The lawsuit argues that the Biden administration is ignoring the commands of Congress. The lawsuit states that the administration “claims the discretion to decide for itself which aliens should be arrested, detained, and removed, even if its policy preferences directly conflict with the clear commands of Congress.”
Marshall continued, “However, President [Joe] Biden has reversed course, effectively thumbing his nose at federal law, slow-walking or outright ignoring legal requirements for detention and deportation of criminal aliens. On November 21, 2021, the Biden administration declared it would no longer strictly abide by the law regarding criminal alien detentions and deportations. It will instead loosely enforce criminal alien detentions and enforcement, asserting ‘broad discretion to decide who should be subject to arrest, detainers, removal proceedings, and the execution of removal orders.’
“Alabama and other states currently bear many of the consequences of unlawful immigration, collectively spending more than $100 million per year incarcerating aliens who commit crimes within our borders. We will spend even more because of the criminals the Biden administration is releasing instead of arresting, detaining, and removing, especially given the high recidivism rates among released prisoners. The Biden administration cannot ignore the law, nor should it place American lives in jeopardy by allowing criminal aliens to escape the long arm of justice,” Marshall concluded.
Florida AG Ashley Moody stated on Twitter, “Joe Biden’s refusal to deport criminals here illegally after they complete their sentences makes us all less safe. I’m bringing a new multistate action to force the federal government to deport criminal aliens instead of releasing them into our communities.”
