Florida wins bid to temporarily quell potential mass-release of migrants

WASHINGTON, D.C. (FLV) – As a Trump-era imposed rule to swiftly deport illegal immigrants expired Friday, a federal judge granted Florida a legal victory in attempting to block the U.S. from releasing migrants without assigning court dates.

Title 42’s expiration prompted alarm bells that border patrol would begin mass-releasing migrants into the country.

In a lawsuit filed earlier on Thursday, Attorney General Ashley Moody warned that if the court does not step in, authorities would “stand down” prompting “hundreds of thousands of migrants to storm the Southwest Border.”

Moody’s office said the Biden administration must explain to a federal judge “why a new immigration policy does not violate a court order obtained by Attorney General Ashley Moody earlier this year.”

Late Thursday, hours before the policy would expire, Judge T. Kent Wetherell issued a decision in favor of Florida, requiring the Biden administration not release migrants into the country without an assigned appointment date with authorities.

“The expiration of the Title 42 Order is expected to result in a ‘surge’ of aliens seeking to enter the country because there are reportedly tens of thousands of aliens staged at the Southwest Border waiting for the Title 42 Order to expire so that they can seek to enter the country,” Wetherell wrote.

“The Court finds that Florida is entitled to a TRO enjoining the implementation and enforcement of DHS’s newly adopted parole policy,” he said.

The order took effect at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, just before Title 42 officially expired.

The judge wrote that Florida has a “substantial likelihood of success on the merits” because the Biden administration’s proposed parole policy authorizing such a release is “materially indistinguishable” from a prior parole policy struck down, also as a result of a Florida case.

“The Biden administration’s new policy is in direct conflict with a ruling earlier this year obtained by Attorney General Moody in federal court,” Moody’s office said Thursday. “In the ruling, United States District Court Judge T. Kent Wetherell held that Biden’s federal immigration policies are illegal and must change.”

“It now appears the only thing the Biden administration is willing to change about the policy is the name.”

The temporary restraining order from Wetherell will expire in 14 days. A hearing is scheduled for May 19.