The US president wanted to give officials more leeway when it comes to deportations. The plans have been put on hold by the US Supreme Court for the time being.

The US Supreme Court has put another pressure on President Joe Biden and has now put the brakes on his migration policy. The Supreme Court on Thursday (local time) upheld a stay on a measure by the Biden administration that gave US immigration officials more discretion over deportation. The directive has been the subject of court disputes in various states. The Department of Homeland Security announced in September that ICE should focus on deporting migrants who threaten national security. The agency is responsible for arresting illegal immigrants.

The Supreme Court’s decision was extremely narrow, with four out of five votes. Conservative judge Amy Connie Barrett, along with three liberal judges, voted against blocking the measure. The matter is now to be heard in a Washington court in December. It was only in late June that the Supreme Court strengthened Biden’s migration policy and ruled that he had duly abolished a controversial migration rule from the tenure of his predecessor, Donald Trump. However, in terms of climate policy and abortion law, the United States Supreme Court recently dealt two sensitive defeats to Biden.