Federal judge blocks Biden’s immigrant parole policy

The Biden administration plans to appeal a judge’s ruling blocking a policy that allows Border Patrol to release migrants into the United States. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Kent Wetherell in Florida ordered the Border Patrol to detain all illegal immigrants until they receive a formal notice to appear in immigration court. Wetherell said President Joe Biden’s policy is not substantially different from the one he struck down in March and would not help stem the flow of migrants crossing the border. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the plan was designed to deal with overcrowding at immigrant holding facilities after the Title 42 pandemic immigration order ended Thursday night. Wetherell’s order will expire in two weeks, and he scheduled a hearing for this week.

What is happening at the border? Mayorkas said the situation at the southern border has calmed somewhat since an initial surge last week after Title 42 expired. Arrests at the border were down from 10,000 per day earlier last week to 4,200 on Saturday.

Dig deeper: Listen to Bonnie Pritchett’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about Texas communities preparing for a surge in illegal immigrant crossings.