Moody files complaint against Biden administration for ‘unlawful’ border policies

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a complaint along with other states against the Biden administration for unlawful open border policies and “refusing” to enforce the law.

Moody and an 18-state coalition of other attorney generals filed a complaint over the new “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule, claiming that the rule is riddled with “political gamesmanship and smokescreens.”

“Since taking office, this administration has taken step after step to dismantle our public safety-immigration structures,” Moody said.

“These latest actions are an attempt to hide the truth from the American people. Moving unvetted migrants to ports of entry does nothing to stop the crisis at the border, and Floridians deserve to know the truth.”

The federal government characterized the new rule as a means for continuing to regulate immigration since the expiration of Title 42, according to a press release. That policy gave authorities greater ability to prohibit inadmissible immigrants from crossing the border during the coronavirus pandemic.

The “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule claims it will reduce illegal immigration by declaring an ineligibility for inadmissible immigrants to claim asylum if entering through non-legal pathways. 

However, the complaint states that the new rule will “further degrade our nation’s border security and make it even easier to illegally immigrate into the United States.”

“The truth, however, is that the Circumvention Rule is some combination of a half measure and a smoke screen. It is riddled with exceptions, and it is part of the Biden Administration’s broader effort to obfuscate the true situation at the Southwest Border,” the complaint said.

The complaint said that “strikingly,” the Circumvention Rule does not acknowledge the root cause of the crisis: “the Administration’s reckless open borders policies.”

According to the complaint, the rebuttable presumption created by the Circumvention Rule is lawful, however the exemptions to that rebuttable presumption are not.

“Nor are the unreasonably vague factors allowing aliens to rebut the presumption,” the complaint said.

The complaint declared the exceptions to the Circumvention Rule to be unlawful. The attorneys general demanded the administration “vacate those exceptions, and enjoin Defendants from implementing them.”

Moody was joined in filing the complaint with the attorney generals of the following states: Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.