OAN Roy Francis
12:45 PM – Thursday, May 11, 2023
According to Fox News, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has filed for a temporary restraining order to stop the mass release of migrants into the United States along the southern border.
As Title 42 is set to be lifted Thursday night, Border Patrol agents have been making more daily apprehensions than has been recorded. On Monday and Tuesday, agents along the border apprehended more than 10,000 migrants daily, followed by another 10,000 apprehensions on Wednesday, which doubles the average of 5,200.
Reports suggested that the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has around 28,000 migrants in custody, a number higher than the capacity across the southern border which is about 19,000. Multiple sectors along the border were reportedly over capacity as well.
According to Fox News, the priority for CBP was to avoid “images of overcrowding and processing migrants as fast as possible.”
Executive Vice President of the National Border Patrol Council, Art Del Cueto, told News Nation that the state of the border and migrant crisis is “beyond catastrophic and unsustainable.”
Other than the migrants in custody, data showed that up to 16,000 migrants are waiting at the border to cross into San Diego as well as 35,000 waiting to cross into El Paso.
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson confirmed that border agencies had received the “ok” for the mass release of migrants into cities if non-government agencies do not have the capacity to house them.
“As Republican and Democratic administrations alike have done in the past to protect the safety and security of Border Patrol agents and migrants in the event of severe overcrowding conditions, U.S. Border Patrol sectors may consider releasing certain migrants who have undergone strict national security and public safety vetting to continue their immigration processes,” the DHS spokesperson said. “This may include processing migrants for parole to reduce the amount of time they spend in custody.”
Florida AG Moody, in her filing argued that the mass release plan is unlawful because it is too similar to the “Parole + ATD” policy which was implemented in March.
The policy implemented in March allowed migrants to be paroled into the U.S. being enrolled into alternatives to actual detentions using the mobile phone app known as SmartLINK. After the policy was implemented, Federal Judge T. Kent Wetherell said that the government has “effectively turned the southwest border into a meaningless line in the sand and little more than a speedbump for aliens flooding the country,” and proceeded to block it.
Moody’s office argued that the new mass release policy is identical to the old policy and therefore unlawful.
“Florida seeks a temporary restraining order to preserve the status quo until the parties can brief motions for a preliminary injunction or to postpone the effective date of the new policy,” the lawsuit stated. “The Biden Administration’s behavior, if left unchecked, makes a mockery of our system of justice and our Constitution.”
AG Moody also expressed her concerns about the policy calling it “unlawful” and “dangerous,” she also said that the current administration needs to take action to “secure the border and protect the American people.”
“The gall of Biden to thumb his nose at a federal court order and proceed with an unlawful plan to allow what amounts to an invasion at our Southwest Border is not only unprecedented, it is dangerous,” she said. “We have blown the whistle on Biden every step along his path to illegally dismantle our nation’s border security system—and even as the clock ticks down to the end of Title 42 we are taking action to force this administration to follow the law, secure the border and protect the American people.”
Judge Wetherell said that the motion filed by Moody needed to be resolved quickly since the new policy is set to go into effect soon. He reportedly gave the Biden administration until 4:00 p.m. ET to respond to the motion.
“If the allegations in the complaint and motion are true,” he said. “Then it appears that DHS is preparing to flout the Court’s order in Florida v. United States by implementing a new ‘parole’ policy that, based on the DHS spokesperson’s description of the policy, sounds virtually identical to the Parole+ATD policy the Court vacated in Florida.”
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the plan they are implementing “will deliver results” however, it “may not be seen right away.”
“Our plan will deliver results, but it will take time for those results to be fully realized. And it is essential that we all take this into account,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to NBC, the migrants set to be released into the U.S. are being released “without having a court date and with no way the U.S. can track them, but given instructions to appear at an immigration office within 60 days.”
In an email obtained by the Daily Caller, it showed that Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz gave instructions to agents along the border. The instruction had stated that “agents may consider using their discretionary authority to issue a Parole with Condition to family units or single adults on a case-by-case basis, when one of the following conditions are met,” the conditions that the email listed were that a “sector, or centralized processing center’s capacity in custody total exceeds 125% OR USBP has apprehended 7,000 noncitizens per day across the Southwest border over a 72-hour period, OR The USBP average time in custody (TIC) for noncitizens is over 60 hours.”
An anonymous source told the Daily Caller that “there is no other option than to parole … There is no way you can do betting when you have 4,000 in custody. You just have to parole them.”
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts