We’ve covered President Biden’s lawless immigration “parole” scam a number of times (see, e.g., here). Basically, it’s an illegal-alien laundering scheme in which, to try to pretend that the hordes of illegals coming into the country are less numerous than they actually are, Biden and his factotum, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, invite non-Americans the world over to use an app to schedule their illegal crossing of our border. If an alien uses the app, the president pretends he has the power to give the alien a faux visa to come on in. Voila: The alien is no longer deemed illegal! Ergo the crossing doesn’t count as an illegal entry.
From that delusional premise, we are supposed to indulge the fantasy that someday, years or decades from now, the alien will report to immigration authorities, who will evaluate the alien’s (nearly always frivolous) claim of a legal right to be in the United States.
All this, mind you, when the statutory law of the United States has long instructed that people who cross into the country illegally “shall be detained” until the conclusion of their removal proceedings — even the rare alien who may have a colorable asylum or fear-of-persecution claim is supposed to be held in custody until that determination is made. The Biden administration has proposed an administrative rule to countermand the law, notwithstanding the basic principal that, because congressional statutes are superior to administrative rules, the latter must be consistent with, and may not override, the former.
The state of Texas, which has borne the brunt of the Biden border catastrophe, has now sued the administration in federal court over this lunacy. Here’s the introduction of its complaint:
In a farcical attempt to address the invasion of illegal aliens across the southern border following the end of Title 42, the Biden Administration published a new Final Rule inviting migrants to download an app to schedule a convenient time and place to cross the border illegally. Neither the app nor the border patrol officers at the southern border ask if the illegal aliens are seeking asylum, nor do they validate any claim for protection. The Biden Administration is inviting tens of thousands of aliens into Texas, releasing them into the country, and inflicting serious costs on the State of Texas. The Biden Administration’s attempt to manage the southern border by app does not meet even the lowest expectation of competency and runs afoul of the laws Congress passed to regulate immigration, and the Final Rule should be enjoined.
The full complaint is here.