The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a key element of President Biden’s plan for targeted immigration enforcement, ruling that the administration could focus its efforts on arresting and deporting those who pose a current threat.

In an 8-1 decision, the judges said Texas and Louisiana had no jurisdiction to sue for the enforcement policy.

Writing for the court, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh said, “Essentially, the states want the federal judiciary to order the executive branch to change its arrest policy to make more arrests. It is the policy of the prosecuting authority when it itself is not prosecuted or threatened with prosecution.”

Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. just disagreed.

The decision in the case of US vs. Texas does not concern the tens of thousands of migrants arriving at the border or millions of people living in the country without legal documentation.

Instead, it’s about immigrants with past crimes on their record and whether the government is obligated to track them down for arrest and deportation.

Republican prosecutors and the Democratic administration are embroiled in a dispute over immigration enforcement.

Last year, the Supreme Court refused by a vote of 5 to 4 to allow Biden’s immigration enforcement guidelines to go into effect, but the justices agreed to hear arguments about the legal dispute.

The question is whether the law requires mandatory detention for immigrants who have a serious criminal record or whether the government can instead focus on arresting and deporting those who pose a current threat to public safety.

Immigrants often serve years in state prisons for crimes such as drug trafficking. Once released, they may be taken into custody by federal immigration agents, but that is not automatic.

Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, said the administration had no choice but to prioritize enforcement of immigration laws.

It is well enshrined in the law that federal government officials have wide discretion in deciding who should be arrested, detained, removal proceedings and the execution of removal orders, he said last September. He said enforcement should focus on non-citizens who pose a current threat to public safety, not anyone with a criminal record.

But Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit alleging that the law required the government to arrest, detain, and deport what Congress called criminal aliens, including those charged with a felony.

He filed his lawsuit with U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton, a Trump appointee in Corpus Christi, Texas. The judge issued a nationwide injunction declaring that the administration’s enforcement policy was illegal and should not be used.

The US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to overturn the injunction last July, and the Supreme Court did the same by a vote of 5 to 4 in July.