Bethany Blankley (The Center Square)
The state of Florida is suing the Biden-Harris administration to get information about how many illegal aliens who have been convicted of violent crimes and served time in prison have been released into the U.S. instead of being deported.
“Historically, it was common knowledge that illegal immigrants brought to the United States and charged with a crime would be deported once they served their sentence,” the lawsuit filed by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody states. “That was the case until the Biden-Harris Administration implemented shockingly irresponsible immigration policies that sent countless dangerous criminals directly from federal prisons into our communities, creating chaos, anarchy and crime.”
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The lawsuit was filed after the state of Florida filed a Freedom of Information Act request in March seeking information about alleged criminal illegal aliens who have been released into the U.S. without being deported, but received no response.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Fort Myers Division, and names U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Prisons as defendants.
“Not only do they flatly refuse to secure our borders, but President Biden and his ousted border commissioner, Kamala Harris, are reportedly refusing to deport dangerous illegal immigrant prisoners to our communities after they are released from prison,” Moody said. “The current administration has made it clear they will not turn over documents demonstrating this dangerous and illegal plan in a timely manner. Now American cities are suffering in the open, and I will not sit idly by and watch this dereliction of duty.”
“The Biden Administration is fully aware that prisoners from other countries are entering the United States through our wide-open border. Now we are demanding that the Biden Administration reveal why it is releasing illegal immigrant criminals in U.S. prisons directly into the country rather than deporting them to their home countries,” she said in her Freedom of Information request in March. “The American people have a right to know.”
The lawsuit alleges that the administration has “illegally concealed records” and thereby harmed the state of Florida by “continuing to deny the state of Florida access to documents to which it is legally entitled.” It also says the damages will be irreparable unless ICE is forced to comply with the law. The lawsuit asks the court to order the defendants to comply with Florida’s request and pay its attorneys’ fees.
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In his lawsuit, Moody also notes that U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Sea Operations, Border Patrol and U.S. Coast Guard agents follow different procedures when apprehending illegal border crossers at land and sea borders.
According to The Center Square, many people who enter the country illegally by land from the southwestern and northern borders are not deported within the United States but are processed and sent out of the country, but most illegal aliens apprehended at sea are deported to their countries of origin.
Members of the U.S. Coast Guard’s 7th District in South Florida continue to intercept and deport aliens attempting to illegally enter the United States off the coast of Florida, in record numbers under the Biden-Harris Administration. The Center Square Reported.
Coast Guard records show, for example, that in a six-month period between Oct. 1, 2022, and May 17, 2023, crews intercepted or encountered 6,679 Cubans and 4,473 Haitians, The Center Square previously reported.
By comparison, 838 Cubans were arrested in fiscal year 2021, 49 in fiscal year 2020, 313 in fiscal year 2019 and 259 in fiscal year 2018. Reported.
These figures do not include Miami Sector Border Patrol interdiction activities. Reported It’s located near the Center Square.
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Critics argue that if the policies implemented at sea, off the coast of Florida or on Florida’s coast had been implemented at the northern and southwestern land borders of the United States, millions of illegal aliens could have been put through deportation proceedings rather than being released into the country with notices to appear before an immigration judge years later.
People who enter the U.S. illegally by sea, enter legally at a port of entry, and are apprehended by federal and local authorities along the Florida coast without filing an immigration claim are primarily subject to deportation proceedings and “generally are not eligible to apply for asylum or to appear before an immigration judge,” Moody said.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, “Criminal Aliens” [are brought] To America [by the federal government] “In that way, the alien can be prosecuted and serve time in prison pursuant to federal law. But everyone, Democratic and Republican administrations alike, has always assumed that these aliens will be deported the moment they complete their sentence,” she said. “Otherwise, the decision to bring criminals to the United States and prosecute them provides a benefit to the alien in the form of the right to reside permanently in the United States.”
“Yet the Biden-Harris Administration has, for the first time in history, abandoned that practice… In other words, as it stands, asylum seekers caught on the high seas are sent back to their home countries without even meeting an immigration judge, while drug traffickers and other serious criminals brought to the U.S. only to serve time in prison are released directly into our communities, wreaking havoc on our citizens.”
Distributed with permission From Centre Square.
