The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request by Republican attorneys general from 14 states to reinstate an immigrant wealth test that rejected green card applicants who were judged at danger of becoming reliant on taxpayer-funded services.
Bloomberg News said that without comment, the justices “left in place a federal appeals court decision that said the states couldn’t intervene after President Joe Biden’s administration dropped the federal government’s defense of the so-called public charge rule.”
“The appeal had limited practical importance because the administration formally replaced the Trump rule with a more lenient standard in December. Texas has sued to challenge that step, saying it conflicts with a federal immigration statute,” the outlet’s report continued.
The nation’s highest court heard oral arguments about the case during its last term, but ultimately decided not to decide the major issues because there were too many complexities. When the lawsuit was dropped, Bloomberg News stated that Chief Justice John Roberts “gently chided President Joe Biden’s administration for some of its legal maneuvering in the multifaceted fight.”
In the meantime, Biden made his first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border since assuming office on Sunday and reversed the majority of former President Donald Trump’s immigration and border security policies and rules, which critics say contributed to a record number of illegal crossings over the past few years.
When Biden arrived in El Paso, he was welcomed by GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, who delivered him a letter with a list of requests.
The letter started, “Your visit to our southern border with Mexico today is $20 billion too little and two years too late.” “Additionally, your tour skips the places where major illegal immigration happens and the thousands of outraged Texas property owners whose lives have been ruined by your border policies.
“Even the city you visit has been sanitized of the migrant camps which had overrun downtown El Paso because your Administration wants to shield you from the chaos that Texans experience on a daily basis,” the letter continues. “This chaos is the direct result of your failure to enforce the immigration laws that Congress enacted.”
The governor of Texas continued by stating that under the Trump administration, the border was far safer and more secure.
“Your open-border policies have emboldened the cartels, who grow wealthy by trafficking deadly fentanyl and even human beings,” the letter said. “Texans are paying an especially high price for your failure, sometimes with their very lives, as local leaders from your own party will tell you if given the chance.”
Abbott asserted that the issue was precipitated by Biden’s violation of his constitutional duty “to defend the States against invasion through faithful execution of federal laws.”