Contact: media@ilrc.org
(Washington)—A federal court in Texas that erroneously declared the DACA program unlawful has doubled down on its efforts to ensure that US immigration laws remain as punitive as possible.
Judge Andrew Tipton’s latest order places a temporary nationwide injunction on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) enforcement priorities. Judge Tipton, a Trump appointee to the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, issued his order in a lawsuit filed by state officials from Texas and Louisiana, who challenged the enforcement priorities in an effort to control federal immigration policy and force the government back into Trump-era immigration tactics to detain and deport people en masse. If ultimately successful, the lawsuit would further entrench ICE’s impunity and require the agency to expand its harsh enforcement practices that particularly target Black and Brown immigrant communities. Tipton’s order fully embraces the hateful immigration system that cause thousands of people to be detained, deported, and torn from their families and communities.
“Judge Tipton’s order is clearly rooted in the far right’s white supremacist agenda. In contrast, other federal judges in Florida and Arizona have struck down similar lawsuits in recent months. Instead of seeking ways to ensure our immigration policies do not disproportionately target Black immigrants and other immigrants of color, Judge Tipton chose to issue a hateful anti-immigrant decision that bolsters the agenda of nativists,” said Nithya Nathan-Pineau, Policy Attorney & Strategist at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC).
“This week a Nevada judge declared that a decades old section of law making it a felony to reenter the U.S. after being deported was enacted with racial prejudice and violates the Equal Protection Clause,” Nathan-Pineau said. “Judge Tipton should take a lesson from that decision rather than fuel anti-immigrant sentiment. As well, the Biden Harris Administration should commit to taking bold action to change immigration policy to protect immigrant communities.”
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The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) is a national nonprofit that works with immigrants, community organizations, legal professionals, and policy makers to build a democratic society that values diversity and the rights of all people. Through community education programs, legal training & technical assistance, and policy development & advocacy, the ILRC works to protect and defend the fundamental rights of immigrant families and communities.