Parole+ATD is the Biden administration’s name for one of its many parole programs under its general “catch and release” policy, which the Obama administration also used, but which President Donald Trump ended.
Federal immigration law could not be clearer about the illegality of what DHS is doing. Section 1225 of Title 8 of the U.S. Code says aliens who arrive without proper admission documents are subject to expedited removal “without further hearing or review.” In other words, they are to be turned back immediately.
The DHS tried to argue that the huge increase in illegal aliens being released was “attributable to something other than a change in policy (such as the post-pandemic increase in migration),” but the judge said that claim was “simply not credible and is contrary to the weight of the evidence.”
DHS also tried to claim that its release of aliens was due to not having enough detention space. But, as Wetherell pointed out, in contrast to the Trump administration, which submitted budget requests for increased detention space, the Biden administration has been steadily closing detention facilities and reducing the appropriations requested for detention space.
As the judge said, the Biden DHS was acting “like a child who kills his parents and then seeks pity for being an orphan,” adding:
[It’s hard] to take Defendant’s claim that they had to release more aliens into the country because of limited detention capacity seriously when they have elected not to use one of the tools provided by Congress … and they have continued to ask for less detention capacity.