A federal judge tossed out Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ policy limiting ICE’s targets for enforcement actions, ruling Friday that the government has a general duty to try to detain and deport illegal immigrants who have significant criminal records or who have been ordered removed by an immigration judge.
Judge Drew B. Tipton said evidence produced in the case showed that under Mr. Mayorkas’ policy, migrants whom the law demanded be detained were in fact being released, including many with serious drug offenses, assault with a firearm, or sexual battery.
He said those are the types of cases Congress said it wanted to see detained and deported, and any policy that alters that scheme must fall.