PHOENIX (AP) – The United States Department of Homeland Security has ended an unusual agreement that Arizona’s highest prosecutor signed with the agency in the closing days of the Trump administration to try to overcome President Joe Biden’s ability to change immigration policies. predecessor to revise, limit.
The agency’s action was revealed on Wednesday when Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican in Arizona, filed a lawsuit to stop newly confirmed Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas from executing Biden’s 100-day moratorium on deportations. A federal judge in Texas has already put it on hold.
“The Arizona law enforcement community is particularly concerned that aliens charged or convicted of crimes will be released as a result of DHS’s 100-day moratorium,” Brnovich said in the federal lawsuit.
He said authorities are also concerned “that the release of individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic will put further pressure on hospitals and social services at the local and provincial levels.”
Brnovich sued last month after a court order temporarily banned the US government from enforcing a break in deportations. His filing revealed that Homeland Security had canceled the immigration deal he had made with the agency, which had been one of at least nine quietly signed with state and local jurisdictions during the final weeks of the Trump administration.
Under the agreements, the jurisdictions are entitled to a 180-day consultation period before the executive branch’s policy changes take effect.
It is not clear what happened to the agreements signed elsewhere. The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on Wednesday, citing the pending lawsuit.
It comes the same week that a whistleblower compliant revealed that then-DHS deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli had also signed last-minute agreements with a union for immigration and customs enforcement employees.
The Government Accountability Project said in a whistleblower complaint filed Monday with Congress and two federal watchdogs that the employment agreements confer “extraordinary power and benefits” on the American Federation of Government Employees ICE Council 118, which represents about 7,500 employees and endorsed Trump in 2016. and 2020.
In addition to enhanced economic benefits, the agreements give the union the power to delay changes in immigration enforcement policies and practices, according to the letter filed by the Government Accountability Project on behalf of an undisclosed federal employee.
The agreements would remain in effect for eight years unless Homeland Security takes action to challenge them by February 17, which is 30 days after Cuccinelli signed them.
“This abuse of authority is shocking,” wrote David Seide, a lawyer for the unidentified employee, noting Cuccinelli’s “extraordinary involvement”.
“Clearly they are another example of the previous administration’s efforts in dwindling hours to bolster a legacy at taxpayer expense,” he said.
Cuccinelli said in an email that he had done nothing wrong.
“With the advice and counsel of the Office of the General Counsel, I have made appropriate agreements to finally address many of these previously unresolved issues,” he said. “As far as I know, the primary basis for the complaint is that I did my job well, much to the annoyance of the complainant.”
The leaders of Biden’s Homeland Security have not said whether they will cancel the employment contracts.
The union official she signed, Chris Crane, did not respond to requests for comment.
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Fox reported from Washington.
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