Attorney General Moody Files Lawsuit Against Biden-Harris Administration Over Refusal to Produce Documents Detailing the Release of Criminal Illegal immigrants in Florida

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-Attorney General Ashley Moody today filed a lawsuit against the Biden-Harris administration over its failure to produce public documents responsive to a Freedom of Information Act request. The FOIA request, filed by the Florida Attorney General's Office in March, seeks documents regarding the administration's policies permitting the release of dangerous criminals into the United States following their release from U.S. prisons.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said, "In addition to flat out refusing to secure the border, reports indicate that President Biden and failed Border Czar Kamala Harris refuse to deport dangerous illegal immigrant prisoners into our communities once they are released from prison. On top of that, reports last week show possible foreign gang affiliated illegal aliens overtaking apartment complexes in American cities. This administration has made it clear they will not turn over documents showing this dangerous and unlawful scheme in a timely manner. Now, American cities are suffering in a very public way. I will not stand idly by and allow this dereliction of duty, that is why I filed suit today."

In March, Attorney General Moody filed the FOIA request saying at the time, "The Biden administration has full knowledge that prisoners from other countries are making their way into the United States through our wide-open border. Now, we are demanding to know reasons why the Biden administration is releasing criminal illegal aliens in U.S. prisons directly into the interior, rather than deporting them back to their country of origin. This reckless scheme could have disastrous and serious repercussions, and the American people deserve to know."

After the administration failed to respond to the request, Attorney General Moody filed a complaint for injunctive relief and to compel production of documents in federal district court. The complaint reads in part, "Historically, when illegal aliens were brought to the U.S. to be prosecuted for their crimes, it was well understood that the aliens would be deported once they have served their sentence. That was until the Biden-Harris Administration implemented their shockingly irresponsible immigration policy, pushing unknown numbers of dangerous criminals straight from federal prison into our communities and causing chaos, anarchy, and crime."

The complaint goes on to state, "Recently, Americans watched in horror as they witnessed the consequences of this Biden-Harris policy, as well as other open borders policies, when armed gang members took over an apartment complex in Colorado and used it as a base for criminal activity. That incident represents merely one example of the destruction and chaos wrought by this Administration's policy choices. Even so, most Americans do not understand just how reckless the Biden-Harris Administration has been behaving. By way of example, consider aliens caught on the high seas seeking to smuggle illicit drugs into our country. Unlike aliens who reach land, aliens caught at sea are generally not eligible to claim asylum or to appear before an immigration judge. The federal government, however, sometimes chooses to bring these criminal aliens to the United States so the aliens can be prosecuted consistent with federal law and serve time in prison. But everyone has always assumed-in both Democrat and Republican Administrations-that such aliens would be deported the moment they finished their criminal sentence. Otherwise, the decision to bring a criminal to the United States for prosecution results in a benefit to that alien in the form of the right to permanently remain in the United States. For the first time in history, however, the Biden-Harris Administration has abandoned that practice…In other words, as things stand, asylum seekers caught on the high seas have been returned to their home country without even seeing an immigration judge, while drug traffickers and other serious criminals brought to the United States only for the purpose of serving prison time are being released straight into our communities to wreak havoc on our citizenry."

Read the full complaint here.

# # #