Bloomberg Law recently reported that the Trump administration “Is Taking Immigrants to Court, Seeking Millions in Fines”. It’s high time DHS and DOJ began using the monetary leverage Congress gave them decades ago to encourage aliens under final orders of removal to depart the United States — and note also that this fine threat is just a different flavor of what my colleague Mark Krikorian refers to as “briefcase enforcement”, in contrast to ICE arrests on the streets and in communities.
How INA Deals With Aliens Under Final Removal Orders
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is admittedly a bit schizophrenic when it comes to how DHS must deal with aliens who have received their full due process rights and are under final orders of removal.
For example, section 241(a)(1)(A) of the INA directs DHS to remove aliens under final orders of removal within 90 days (the “removal period”), and under section 241(a)(2)(A), the department must detain those aliens throughout that removal period.
Most aliens under final removal orders are not, in fact, detained, though section 241(a)(2)(A) continues, barring DHS from releasing aliens ordered removed on criminal and national security grounds, while section 241(a)(2)(B), added by the Laken Riley Act, gives state attorneys general standing to sue to enforce those criminal alien arrest and detention mandates.
If you want to know why Trump II has been pushing back so vehemently against “sanctuary jurisdictions” that impede ICE officers from taking custody of criminal aliens from their jails and prisons or straight out refuse to turn those aliens over to the agency, look no further than that mandate. This is the epitome of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenarios.
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