The Supreme Court on Friday breathed new life into a Biden administration policy that will set immigration enforcement priorities by focusing on public safety threats.
The justices on a 8-1 vote overturned a Texas-based federal judge's ruling in June of last year that blocked the policy nationwide. It had previously been in effect for less than a year.
The court in a ruling authored by conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that the challengers did not have legal standing to sue over the plan.
Announced in September 2021, President Joe Biden's plan marked a shift away from the hard-line enforcement approach taken by former President Donald Trump. The administration argued that with an estimated 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally, the government has to prioritize certain cases because it does not have the resources to detain and deport all of them.
Texas and Louisiana immediately challenged the plan in court, arguing that federal immigration law requires that certain illegal immigrants — including those convicted of aggravated felonies, human trafficking and some gun crimes — must be detained after they are released from criminal custody. Biden's policy, which required an individual assessment of whether an immigrant is a threat to public safety or national security while the government initiates the deportation process, would defy that requirement, the states say.
Biden administration lawyers argued that the president has broad discretion to set enforcement priorities.
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In the ruling blocking the policy, U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton, a Trump appointee, said Texas had standing because it could show that immigrants who should have been detained were in Texas and in some cases had committed crimes.
Tipton found both that the policy was unlawful and that the government failed to follow the correct procedure in implementing it.
Republicans have frequently accused Biden of a lax approach to enforcement and border security, which they argue have led to a rise in crime and an increase in the number of people entering the U.S. illegally.
The Supreme Court voted 5-4 in July 2022 to reject the Biden administration's request to immediately restore the policy but agreed to take up the government's appeal.