WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Friday gave President Joe Biden’s administration the green light to move ahead with guidelines shifting immigration enforcement toward countering public safety threats, handing him a victory on the politically contentious issue in a legal battle with Texas and Louisiana.

The justices ruled 8-1 in favour of the administration’s appeal of a judge’s ruling that had halted US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) guidelines narrowing the scope of those who can be targeted by immigration agents for arrest and deportation. The Republican attorney’s general in those two states filed suit to challenge Biden’s policy.

The justices determined that the two states did not have legal standing to bring the legal challenge.

The guidelines reflected Biden’s recalibration of US immigration policy after the hardline approach taken by his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, who sought to broaden the range of immigrants’ subject to arrest and removal.

Biden’s policy prioritised apprehending and deporting non-US citizens who pose a threat to national security, public safety or border security, giving agents more discretion to consider individual circumstances.

Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who authored the ruling, wrote that lawsuits alleging that the government has made insufficient arrests or prosecutions “run up against” the authority of the executive branch to enforce federal law.

“The executive branch — not the judiciary — makes arrests and prosecutes offenses on behalf of the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito dissented from the decision.

In another immigration-related ruling on Friday, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s decision invalidating a federal law that makes it a crime for a person to encourage illegal immigration as a violation of constitutional free speech protections. Biden’s administration had defended the law.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2023