Florida Judge Threatens Biden Administration with Contempt over Immigration-Ruling Noncompliance

Judge T. Kent Wetherell, who blocked a Biden-administration parole policy to release migrants into the interior without a court date in order to alleviate overcrowding, is considering holding Department of Homeland Security officials in contempt because of suspected noncompliance.

Wetherell, who serves on the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Florida, ruled against the Biden administration after Florida attorney general Ashley Moody sued to block the policy that was due to go into effect on May 12, a day after Title 42 expired. Moody argued that the policy was similar to one already declared unconstitutional in March, and Wetherell agreed. Texas has also filed suit against the policy.

“It has come to the Court’s attention that there are published news reports stating that DHS ‘paroled’ 2,500 aliens after the Court entered its temporary restraining order,” wrote Wetherell, citing a Washington Times report. “The Court takes allegations of noncompliance with its orders very seriously, irrespective of the source of the allegations.”

The Florida judge ordered the Biden administration to show cause as to why it should not be held in contempt for violating the temporary restraining order.

In a response Monday, lawyers from the Department of Justice said the order had generally been followed but admitted some possible noncompliance.

“DHS took immediate steps to ensure compliance with the Court’s TRO by sending instructions to the field to cease processing under the Parole with Conditions policy in advance of the TRO taking effect. It appears that those instructions generally were followed. Defendants’ review of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (‘CBP’) systems has identified some data indicating possible noncompliance with respect to a relatively small number of individuals,” read the response from the defendants.

The filing explained that officials identified 167 individuals “who appear to have been processed for Parole with Conditions, but who do not reflect a process complete time prior to 11:59 p.m. on May 11, 2023.” The DOJ is asking for two days to assess these cases and provide a further update.

The Department of Justice also addressed the article in particular. “Because the Washington Times article cites an anonymous source for its numbers, Defendants cannot assess where those numbers came from or how they were generated,” the filing read.

Wetherell’s order has been slammed by Biden-administration officials, including White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who called it “sabotage.”

“This ignorant and dangerous rhetoric ignores the fact that the evidence presented in this case shows that the chaos that the president acknowledged has been going on at the southern border for a number of years, is largely a problem of the defendants’, the administration’s, own making. If it is sabotage for a federal court to tell the federal government it must comply with the law, then so be it,” said Wetherell in response.