
Judge rules against Biden administration rules for ICE deportation agents
CBSN
A federal judge in Ohio on Tuesday partially blocked a Biden administration directive that instructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to prioritize certain groups of immigrants for arrest and deportation, agreeing with a legal challenge mounted by three Republican-led states.
Judge Michael Newman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said a September 2021 memo issued by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas led ICE agents to violate laws mandating the detention of certain immigrants facing deportation because of criminal convictions.
Mayorkas' memo directed ICE agents to focus on arresting immigrants found to pose a threat to national security or public safety, as well as migrants who recently crossed a U.S. border illegally. Mayorkas' memo was similar to two other Biden administration immigration enforcement policies issued earlier in 2021 that also narrowed the categories of immigrants subject to deportation.

In the past year, over 135 million passengers traveled to the U.S. from other countries. To infectious disease experts, that represents 135 million chances for an outbreak to begin. To identify and stop the next potential pandemic, government disease detectives have been discreetly searching for viral pathogens in wastewater from airplanes. Experts are worried that these efforts may not be enough.