A federal judge in Florida temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s plan to temporarily parole asylum seekers into the United States without a court date.
The Thursday night ruling went into effect at 11:59 p.m. ETA and is set to expire 14 days later.
It does not affect the end of Title 42 which still went into effect as planned. This ruling instead deals with a memorandum issued by the federal government yesterday.
It would have allowed agencies to release asylum seekers without setting court dates or processing charging documents. The memo said this would be done on an individual basis, but the Florida federal judge said it was intended to control crowding at the border, not for the benefit of those crossing the border.
Customs and Border Protection responded in a statement, saying they will comply with the court order but called the ruling harmful and will result in unsafe overcrowding.
CBP will comply with the court order and is assessing next steps. This is a harmful ruling that will result in unsafe overcrowding at CBP facilities and undercut our ability to efficiently process and remove migrants, and risks creating dangerous conditions for border patrol agents and migrants. The fact remains that when overcrowding has occurred in Border Patrol facilities, Republican and Democratic Administrations alike have used this parole authority to protect the safety and security of migrants and the workforce. Individuals apprehended by CBP are thoroughly vetted against all national security and public safety systems, regardless of how they are processed.