Southern District Court of Texas Overrules Biden Administration’s Deportation Moratorium

Written by Taher Kameli & Chathan Vemuri

The first two weeks of the Biden presidency has seen a dramatic pause on many of the Trump administration’s most controversial immigration policies, from ending the Muslim ban to reversing the policy focusing immigration law enforcement on any undocumented person regardless of criminal status or lack thereof, to ending an emergency declaration to divert funds to proposed border wall.[1] Yet opposition to these reversals remains as strong as ever in those states where the former President still commands high levels of support. In Texas last week, one state attorney general was able to get legal sanction for the first major challenge to the Biden administration’s check on Trump-era immigration policies.[2]

On January 26, 2021, Judge Drew Tipton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas overruled President Biden’s 100-day deportation moratorium.[3] In a court order imposing the requested 14-day temporary restraining order (TRO), Judge Tipton held that the Texas state government (who requested thee order under its Attorney General Ken Paxton) had demonstrated the requisite substantial risk of imminent and irreparable harm to the State of Texas.[4]