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White House accuses Justice of "sabotage" for blocking its immigrant release policy

Judge Wetherell responds to the administration's allegations and denies their request to reinstate the immigration policy.

Karine Jean-Pierre habla durante una conferencia de prensa en la Casa Blanca.

(Cordon Press)

Published by
Santiago Ospital

"Sabotage, pure and simple." With these words, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described Judge T. Kent Wetherell II's ruling blocking the release of immigrants into the United States.

The magistrate suspended - for at least two weeks - a policy that would have allowed border authorities to leave immigrants on U.S. streets before they had a court date.

These individuals would be released on parole and promised to report in 60 days to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel. The magistrate pointed out numerous flaws in the policy, detailed in a memorandum signed by Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz.

Jean-Pierre said that the Department of Justice will fight Wetherell's "harmful sentence. He also assured that "claims that the Border Patrol is allowing or encouraging the mass release of migrants is categorically false." However, he did not refute the judge's arguments, nor did he detail how they would fight his decision.

We will continue to use all the tools we have to ensure that we are dealing with this issue in a humane and orderly manner.

More beds against overcrowding

The measure blocked by Wetherell was aimed at clearing holding facilities for migrants who illegally crossed the southern border. What will the Administration do then to prevent overcrowding?

"ICE announced that it will add thousands of beds," the Democratic spokeswoman explained. She also assured that the President would use "all available tools," although she did not name any new measures. Instead, he kicked the ball into Congress' court:

But look, we need Congress - beyond that, beyond the sentence, beyond what we have seen of sabotage, as I said, pure and simple - this is sabotage - we want Congress to act. We want Congress to act. And we just haven't seen that.

The prosecutor, in the spotlight

Jean-Pierre responded that he would not comment on prosecutor Ashley Moody, who brought the successful lawsuit against the immigrant parole policy. Florida's attorney general had already obtained an injunction against another Biden immigration measure earlier this month. Both, to Moody and the judge, were identical.

He went on, however, to accuse her of having"sabotaged" the Executive's efforts to "humanely and effectively manage the border". He said the same about Republican lawmakers.

Instead of trying to solve a problem or talking to the federal government about how to solve a problem maybe in their state or in their city, (Republicans) sabotage what we are trying to do.

Did the liberation begin?

Meanwhile, various media outlets along the U.S.-Mexico border claimed that authorities had already released thousands of migrants.

Last Thursday, 2,000 people were reportedly released onto American streets, according to testimonies of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents gathered by journalists in the area. The New York Post, meanwhile, put the figure at 1,1000 immigrants sent to the interior of the country from El Paso, Texas alone.

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