Judge strikes down Biden’s ‘catch and release’ border policy

A federal judge ruled in favor of the state of Florida on Wednesday and struck down the Biden administration’s use of parole to free illegal migrants in droves that are caught crossing the border. 

Judge T. Kent Wetherell II of the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida blocked the Biden administration from using humanitarian parole and “alternatives to detention” to mass release migrants, a policy critics refer to as “catch and release.” 

Wetherell, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, blasted the Biden administration in his scathing opinion in support of Republican Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s challenge to the practice, arguing that the southern border has become just a “speedbump” for illegal border-crossers. 

“The evidence establishes that Defendants have effectively turned the Southwest Border into a meaningless line in the sand and little more than a speedbump for aliens flooding into the country by prioritizing ‘alternatives to detention’ over actual detention and by releasing more than a million aliens into the country — on ‘parole’ or pursuant to the exercise of ‘prosecutorial discretion’ under a wholly inapplicable statute — without even initiating removal proceedings,” Wetherell wrote. 

“There is nothing inherently inhumane or cruel about detaining aliens pending completion of their immigration proceedings,” he added.

The Biden administration ostensibly has been using the policy known as “Parole + ATD” since 2021 to ease overcrowding in detention facilities. 

Parole + ATD has been used by the Department of Homeland Security as an alternative to detaining migrants and releasing them with Notices to Appear that set a court date, a process that keeps migrants in custody much longer.

Under Parole + ATD, migrants are fitted with ankle bracelets or subject to phone monitoring and told to check-in with immigration authorities when they reach their destination in the US. 

Wetherell’s ruling stays the order for seven days to allow for an appeal.

“Today’s ruling affirms what we have known all along, President Biden is responsible for the border crisis and his unlawful immigration policies make this country less safe,” Moody said in a statement after the ruling.

“A federal judge is NOW ordering Biden to follow the law, and his administration should immediately begin securing the border to protect the American people,” the Sunshine State’s attorney general added. 

President Biden is reportedly considering bringing back the controversial practice of detaining migrant families that cross the border illegally as his administration grapples with the looming end of Title 42, a Trump-era program that allowed authorities to swiftly deport migrants apprehended crossing the border.