Federal judge: Biden’s border policies ‘divorced from reality’

by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News March 9, 2023

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Team Biden’s policy of catching and releasing massive numbers of illegal immigrants on “parole” is illegal.

Judge T. Kent Wetherell, a Trump appointee who sits in northern Florida, laid the blame for the border crisis squarely at the feet of Joe Biden and his policies. He also called the Biden administration’s attempt to blame global factors for the unprecedented border surge “divorced from reality.”

“Collectively, these actions were akin to posting a flashing ‘Come In, We’re Open’ sign on the southern border,” the judge wrote in a 109-page ruling. “The unprecedented ‘surge’ of aliens that started arriving at the Southwest Border almost immediately after President Biden took office and that has continued unabated over the past two years was a predictable consequence of these actions.”

He ordered the parole policy vacated — though he stayed his ruling for a week to give the administration a chance to appeal the decision.

Judge Wetherell specifically pointed to testimony of Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz, who said illegal entrants were only rarely released under former President Donald Trump but that catch-and-release has become the default posture in the Biden administration.

The judge said that means Team Biden has “effectively turned the Southwest Border into a meaningless line in the sand and little more than a speedbump for aliens flooding into the country by prioritizing ‘alternatives to detention’ over actual detention and by releasing more than a million aliens into the country — on ‘parole’ or pursuant to the exercise of ‘prosecutorial discretion’ under a wholly inapplicable statute — without even initiating removal proceedings.”

That latter jab is a reference to hundreds of thousands of migrants who were released at the border without even being issued an immigration court summons, which is usually considered the bare minimum consequence for someone who entered the country illegally.

Under the law, illegal immigrants who make claims of protection are supposed to be detained while their immigration cases proceed.

Judge Wetherell the detention policies in place under Trump were working — but were undone by the Biden team, which generally disliked detention as the standard for most illegals.


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