Texas Judge Blocks Biden’s 100-Day Pause On Deportation

MCALLEN, TX - JUNE 12: A U.S. Border Patrol vehicle illuminates a group of Central American asylum seekers before taking them into custody near the U.S.-Mexico border on June 12, 2018 in McAllen, Texas. The group of women and children had rafted across the Rio Grande from Mexico and were detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents before being sent to a processing center for possible separation. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is executing the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy towards undocumented immigrants. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions also said that domestic and gang violence in immigrants' country of origin would no longer qualify them for political asylum status. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Republicans have landed their first blow against the new administration, according to the New York Times.

BREAKING — U.S. Judge Drew Tipton temporarily halts the Biden administration’s 100-day moratorium on certain deportations in an early legal battle over the new president’s immigration policy.

Follow @CBSNews for more: pic.twitter.com/dlqDpSY98b
— Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) January 26, 2021

The judge, Drew B. Tipton, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, said in his ruling that the suspension of deportations would violate a provision of the immigration statute (waiting 100 days for internal review as opposed to the current practice of 90 days and you’re out), as well as another law that required agencies to provide a rational explanation for their policy decisions.

Biden originally proposed the moratorium to allow more time for internal review, but apparently Texas feels those 10 days are crucial, and that the mandatory language of the immigration law should not be “neutered by the federal government’s broad discretion.”

VICTORY.

Texas is the FIRST state in the nation to bring a lawsuit against the Biden Admin.

AND WE WON.

Within 6 days of Biden’s inauguration, Texas has HALTED his illegal deportation freeze.

*This* was a seditious left-wing insurrection. And my team and I stopped it.
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) January 26, 2021

Thankfully, this kind of blow shouldn’t leave much of a scar, as the judge only has two weeks to consider a broader motion for a preliminary injunction.