Federal Judge: Migrants Must Have Release Notices

A Florida federal judge issued an order for the U.S. Border Patrol to not release immigrants unless they have a formal notice to make an appearance in immigration court. 

The Border Patrol had been allowing some people to be released into the U.S. without them first getting a formal order to appear in an effort to avoid overcrowding in the patrol’s facilities because of the time needed to process the paperwork, reported The New York Times.

Florida had challenged an earlier version of the rule on formal orders, so the Biden administration stopped releasing people without the documents. This week, however, the Border Patrol issued a revised policy, leading Florida to return to court to keep people from being released without a court notice. 

That led to Thursday night’s temporary restraining order.

Lee Gelernt, the American Civil Liberties Union’s lead attorney in Title 42 litigation said the order would not affect the expiration of Title 42 restrictions.

The Border Patrol, calling the ruling “harmful,” said it will comply while assessing its next steps. 

“This is a harmful ruling that will result in unsafe overcrowding at C.B.P. facilities and undercut our ability to efficiently process and remove migrants, and risks creating dangerous conditions for Border Patrol agents and migrants,” the agency said in a statement.

“The fact remains that when overcrowding has occurred in Border Patrol facilities, Republican and Democratic administrations alike have used this parole authority to protect the safety and security of migrants and the workforce.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Friday also said he has concerns about the ruling. 

He told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” that “the practice of releasing individuals when our Border Patrol facilities, when our stations are overcrowded, is something that each administration has done from administration to administration. This is a harmful ruling and the Department of Justice is considering our options.”

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director for the American Immigration Council, also said he is concerned about the outcome of the judge’s order.

“The big fear is overcrowding due to the fact that it takes two or three times as long as long per person to process a notice to appear in court versus issuing someone parole, which means you’ve tightened a bottleneck,” he said.