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1 1 (October 21, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govejcv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: S Con gressionl ~.Research Service The Biden Administration's Immigration Enforcement Priorities: Background and Legal Considerations Updated October 21, 2022 Almost immediately after taking office, President Biden issued a series of directives on immigration matters. Some of these directives focused on altering the immigration enforcement priorities of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the agency primarily charged with the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Federal statute confers immigration authorities with broad discretion to determine when it is appropriate to pursue the removal of a non-U.S. national (alien under federal law) who lacks a legal basis to remain in the country. Resource or humanitarian concerns have typically led authorities to prioritize enforcement actions against subsets of the removable population (e.g., those who have committed certain crimes or pose national security risks). The Trump Administration made enforcement a touchstone of its immigration policy, and generally sought to enforce federal immigration laws against a broader range of aliens who had committed immigration violations than the Obama Administration. President Biden rescinded some of the Trump Administration's immigration initiatives and directed DHS to review its immigration enforcement policies and priorities. In September 2021, DHS announced new immigration enforcement guidelines that generally focused its enforcement activities on aliens who pose a threat to national security, border security, or public safety. As discussed below, courts have considered legal challenges to the Biden Administration's immigration enforcement policies. Following a lawsuit brought by Texas and Louisiana, a Texas federal district court vacated the guidelines in June 2022, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit declined to stay that ruling pending consideration of the government's appeal. The Supreme Court granted the government's request to review the case and is scheduled to hear arguments in the matter on November 29, 2022. In a separate lawsuit brought by Arizona, Montana, and Ohio, an Ohio federal district court in March 2022 preliminarily enjoined DHS from implementing and enforcing certain aspects of its enforcement guidelines. The Sixth Circuit, however, reversed the district court's decision, lifting the injunction. Despite the Sixth Circuit's ruling, DHS remains barred from implementing its enforcement guidelines given the Texas district court's June 2022 ruling, which remains in force pending the Supreme Court's review of that case. Congressional Research Service https://crsreports. congress.gov LSB10578 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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