TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday that the Biden administration will fight a Florida federal judge’s ruling that at least temporarily blocked a new immigration policy.
U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell sided with Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and issued a temporary restraining order against the policy, saying it violated federal law.
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The Biden administration issued the policy this week to help deal with an expected surge in migrants arriving in the country due to the expiration Thursday of a public health order known as Title 42. S ‘he hoped the new policy, which the federal government described as “parole with conditions”, would lead to the release of large numbers of migrants into the United States.
“Claims that CBP (US Customs and Border Protection) is allowing or encouraging the mass release of migrants … are categorically false,” Jean-Pierre said during a press conference.
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“That’s not what’s happening. That’s not what’s happening. And it’s a damaging sentence, and the Department of Justice will fight it. That’s what we’re going to see. And we’re going to continue to use every tool we have to make sure- us that we are dealing with this problem in a humane and orderly way.”
Moody and Gov. Ron DeSantis have long criticized federal border policies, arguing that undocumented immigrants coming to Florida create costs for services such as schools, health care and prisons.
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Pensacola-based Wetherell also ruled in March that an immigration policy from the previous Biden administration violated federal law. This policy was challenged by Florida.
According to a transcript of Friday’s news conference, Jean-Pierre accused Republican elected officials of “political stunts” and said: “They don’t want to solve this problem. They want to use it, again, as a campaign tool for them.”
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