Biden administration halts limits on ICE arrests following court ruling

The Biden administration on Saturday halted its limits on immigration arrests to comply with a court ruling that took effect over the weekend, leaving deportation agents across the U.S. without any official instructions on which immigrants they should, and should not, detain.

In September 2021, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to arrest immigrants deemed to pose a threat to public safety or national security, and migrants who recently crossed a U.S. border unlawfully.

The rules, part of a broader Biden administration effort to reshape ICE's immigration enforcement functions, generally shielded unauthorized immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before November 2020 from arrest and deportation if they had not committed serious crimes.