Immigration advocates say there are now heightened fears of deportation in the wake of a federal judge's July ruling that blocked the Biden administration's immigration enforcement guidelines.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to prioritize national security, public safety and border security. 

What You Need To Know

  • In July, a federal judge sided with the state of Texas in blocking the Biden administration's immigration enforcement guidelines that directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to prioritize immigrants who were just a threat to public safety

  • Homeland Security officials say that while they "strongly disagree" with the order from Texas, they are complying with the ruling

  • Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that rolling back the Trump-era policy was “arbitrary” and “capricious”
  • The Supreme Court has agreed to hear challenges to the Biden administration’s enforcement guidelines on immigration in its next term

Immigration attorney Anuj Shah told Spectrum News that his client, who has a community in Houston, lives in fear. 

“He has no criminal history," Shah said. "He's got deep, deep roots in the country, and has [children who are] U.S. citizens. He's married, and he's just a hard-working guy who happens to be here without any authorization."

Shah argues that his client, among other immigrants, is "contributing members of the community," adding: "They are paying their taxes and they're working hard." He says with all the confusion they are facing with being deported, it is "breeding anxiety.” 

Before the change, the Biden administration argued that it made sense to focus on the most serious cases because they lacked the resources to pursue millions of undocumented immigrants suspected of living in the U.S. illegally. But Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a frequent critic of the Biden administration, argued that rolling back the Trump-era policy was “arbitrary” and “capricious.”

In a statement, Paxton said, “I continue to be baffled at the blatant disregard for the law that the Biden administration has repeatedly shown. It is beyond logic as to why they would want to break the law and threaten the safety of fellow Americans. If President Biden thinks the State of Texas isn’t ready to fight him and his disastrous border policies on every front, he’s dead wrong.”

Carlos Guevara, a former counselor in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration, argues the court decision was misguided.

“We have an agency who has a very broad mandate but doesn't have necessarily the funding from Congress to really detain and deport everybody. So by necessity, almost by operational necessity, prioritization at kind of national level is a bare-bones common sense, necessity,” Carlos Guevara, director of the Immigration Policy Project at UnidosUS, the country's largest Latino nonprofit advocacy organization, told Spectrum News. 

Guevara warned this could create an “inconsistent environment,” and not just for undocumented immigrants.

“You think about it from the perspective of the operators themselves, and the morale that this might have for ICE officers who are told one day, you know, something on Monday and then on Friday, something altogether different and how that must be impacting them as well,” he said.

Undocumented immigrants and asylum-seekers continue to cross over into the U.S., adding to backlogs in the immigration court system. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has responded to crisis by busing migrants from Texas to cities like New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago to protest Biden's immigration policies. Critics have slammed Abbott's action, with New York Mayor Eric Adams describing it as "horrific" and then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki calling it a "publicity stunt."

One Dallas immigration attorney says having clear enforcement guidelines is critical.  

“It helps them focus their resources in a more uniform way, you know, across the country, I think the key thing that we're looking at here is efficiency. And it helped create a more efficient process for them to be able to do their job more effectively, ” Robert Armstrong, an immigration attorney, told Spectrum News. 

Armstrong said a client would have likely had his case shelved or dismissed under ICE’s guidance. Armstrong said this immigrant from Guatemala presented himself at a port of entry at the Southern border with his daughter in 2018. While their asylum case has been pending, the client’s daughter, who was living with a severe spinal disorder, died in a car crash.

“Now he's stuck in limbo again. No one should have to go through that kind of, you know, traumatic experience,” Armstrong said. “It's just a tremendous burden. And it's just one example of a case where, you know, this is just a very difficult situation for the people that are doing their best to comply with laws as they seek protection in the U.S.”

In a separate but nearly identical case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit sided with the Biden administration.

The Supreme Court has agreed, in its new term, to hear challenges to the Biden administration’s enforcement guidelines on immigration. 

The Department of Homeland Security has directed its ICE officers to make enforcement decisions on a case-by-case basis and professionally and responsibly.