Republican state AGs attempt to stop Biden’s abandonment of immigration rule

A coalition of 20 Republican state attorneys general filed an amicus brief in support of stopping the Biden administration’s capitulation to illegal immigration activists.

Biden’s actions, according to the coalition, would continue to leave the southern border wide open and communities across the country vulnerable to dangerous drugs and crime.

“Every single state has become a border state thanks to President Biden’s mishandling of the southern border. Despite it being clear that the drugs and illegal immigrants flooding our country are hurting every single community, President Biden refuses to defend his own immigration laws,” Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said. “It’s wrong, reckless and doesn’t make sense.”

The brief was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and supports Kansas, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and West Virginia’s motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought by asylum seekers and activists against the Biden administration’s “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule. Rather than defend the rule designed to protect states from the impacts of an open border, the Biden administration is in settlement talks with the plaintiffs. The proposed intervenor states are concerned that the federal government no longer represents the best interests of its constituents.

In September 2023, asylum seekers and activists sued the federal government in M.A. v. Mayorkas, attacking the rule’s provision that individuals who cross the Southern border with Mexico would be presumptively ineligible for asylum in the U.S. The administration at first planned to defend the rule, but in February 2024 announced the parties were “engaged in discussions regarding implementation of the challenged rule and related policies and whether a settlement could eliminate the need for further litigation.”

In their brief, the attorneys general argue that states have standing to defend immigration rules and that states have an interest in preventing the Biden administration from circumventing the Administrative Procedure Act via sue-and-settle tactics.

Attorneys general from Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia joined brief co-led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody.