Victory! Court Restores Trump’s COVID Expulsions

March 7, 2022

Represented by IRLI, Texas achieves major win in lawsuit against Biden administration

WASHINGTON—A Texas federal district court on March 4 granted the State of Texas a preliminary injunction reversing the administration’s COVID-19 border policies, which are causing an influx of illegal aliens infected with COVID into Texas and the United States. This influx imperils both the public health and the economic recovery of that state and the nation. The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) represents the state as Outside Counsel in the case.

In its opinion, the court found that the administration did not make a reasoned decision when it loosened the Trump expulsion policies, and thus that policy change was arbitrary and capricious, and hence unlawful. The court also found that Texas faced immediate irreparable harm from the Biden policy, and that the public interest favored enjoining it.  

“A factor in whether to grant a preliminary injunction is the public interest,” explained Christopher Hajec, IRLI’s director of litigation. “Here, the public interest is resoundingly in favor of the prior Trump policies, not Biden’s inexplicable reversal of them; what is at stake is nothing less than the nation’s recovery, economically and otherwise, from the pandemic.”

“This is a tremendous win for Texas, Attorney General Paxton and all Americans who value secure borders,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “The Biden White House’s refusal to use Title 42 is just one of the ways it has brought chaos to our country. Human trafficking is one of the tragic consequences of anti-borders policies.  We commend the court for taking meaningful action against it.

“Again and again, this administration has told us how dire the COVID crisis is, and how it is by no means over,” Wilcox continued. “It can hardly claim now that causing an influx of infected aliens into Texas and elsewhere in the nation is not a problem. In fact, the situation caused by the administration’s engineered border surge is what is dire, for this and many other reasons. At this point, only the courts can reverse the actions behind that surge, and we applaud the court for the major step it took today in doing so.”

The case is Texas v. Biden, No. 4:21-cv-00579-P (N.D. Tex.).