FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2022
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Mike Lewis (334) 353-2199
Attorney General Steve Marshall Sues Biden Over Policy of Illegally Releasing Criminal Aliens into United States
(MONTGOMERY) – Attorney General Steve Marshall filed suit against the Biden
administration Monday because it is ignoring federal law that requires the federal government to detain and deport aliens who have committed crimes in our country.
Attorney General Marshall joined Florida and Georgia in filing the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. The States seek an order that would halt the Biden administration’s illegal policy of releasing criminal aliens into our communities, an action that threatens the safety of Americans while further undermining our country’s border security.
“For more than three decades a bipartisan majority of congress has made law that the Executive Branch should arrest, detain, and remove all felon criminal aliens,” said Attorney General Marshall. “Congress was justifiably concerned that deportable criminal aliens who are not detained continue to engage in crime and fail to appear for their removal proceedings in large numbers. Furthermore, Congress intended that those arrested and ordered removed by an immigration judge were actually deported. What’s more, officials in previous administrations of both political parties have agreed that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has to prioritize the removal of criminal aliens, and the United States Supreme Court has held that immigration officials ‘must arrest those aliens guilty of a predicate offense.’
“However, President Biden has reversed course, effectively thumbing his nose at
federal law, slow-walking or outright ignoring legal requirements for detention and deportation of criminal aliens. On November 21, 2021, the Biden administration declared it would no longer strictly abide by the law regarding criminal alien detentions and deportations. It will instead loosely enforce criminal alien detentions and enforcement, asserting ‘broad discretion to decide who should be subject to arrest, detainers, removal proceedings, and the execution of removal orders.’
“Alabama and other states currently bear many of the consequences of unlawful
immigration, collectively spending more than $100 million per year incarcerating aliens who commit crimes within our borders. We will spend even more because of the criminals the Biden administration is releasing instead of arresting, detaining and removing, especially given the high recidivism rates among released prisoners.
“The Biden administration cannot ignore the law, nor should it place American lives in jeopardy by allowing criminal aliens to escape the long arm of justice.”
The lawsuit filed by Alabama, Florida and Georgia can be read here.
[For hyperlink, click PDF icon at upper right of press release]
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