(NewsNation) — Florida’s attorney general is attempting to block a migrant parole program that could begin once Title 42 expires Thursday night.
Attorney General Ashley Moody filed her emergency request for a temporary restraining order on Thursday, claiming President Joe Biden’s parole program violates a previous court order.
The request, filed in a Florida federal court, cites plans laid out in an NBC article that was published Wednesday. The article quoted an anonymous Department of Homeland Security official, who claimed Biden would direct border agents to release migrants into the U.S. without a court date.
According to Moody, that process sounds nearly identical to another program, known as Alternatives to Detention, which a federal judge vacated in March.
“The gall of Biden to thumb his nose at a federal court order and proceed with an unlawful plan to allow what amounts to an invasion at our Southwest Border is not only unprecedented, it is dangerous. … We are taking action to force this administration to follow the law, secure the border and protect the American people,” Moody said in an official statement.
The policy — Parole With Conditions — was issued on Wednesday with the expectation it would be used on an emergency and case-by-case basis, the Justice Department said in its response.
Migrants who entered the U.S. through the Alternatives to Detention program were required to use an app to check in until they received a court date.
In his March ruling, U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell of the Northern District of Florida Pensacola Division said that the program violated U.S. immigration laws by releasing asylum-seekers rather than detaining them, NewsNation’s partner Border Report wrote at the time.
The same judge is handling Moody’s Thursday request.
DOJ attorney Joseph Darrow rejected claims that Parole With Conditions is a “work-around” to the old policy.
“The program does not require CBP agents to take any specific action; it neither imposes an obligation to detain or release a noncitizen nor does it grant a noncitizen the right to release,” Darrow wrote in a Thursday court filing.
Agents would retain their discretion and there would be no mandate to universally release migrants, Darrow wrote.
Border officials have raised concerns about a potential surge of migrant encounters once the policy ends. Title 42 allowed agents to turn away migrants to stop the spread of COVID-19.
It was not immediately clear when a ruling on Moody’s request might come down. The judge was pushing for a decision “sooner rather than later,” with only hours to go before Title 42 expires.
This is a developing report. Refresh for updates.