The Texas Tribune
BY URIEL J. GARCÍA / The Texas Triune
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Biden administration has the right to end a Trump-era immigration policy that forces asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico as their cases make their way through U.S. immigration courts.
In a 5-4 ruling, the justices ruled against Texas and Missouri, which had argued the Biden administration violated the law by rescinding the program, and sent the case back to the district court to determine if terminating the policy violated any administrative laws.
But the justices determined that the government’s cancellation of the Migrant Protection Protocols, also called “remain in Mexico,” did not violate a section of immigration law that Texas and Missouri had used to argue that the Biden administration illegally ended the program.
It’s unclear if the Biden administration will try to end the program immediately or wait for the lower court to rule.
The program was launched by the Trump administration in January 2019. After President Joe Biden took office, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas canceled the program in June 2021.
That led Texas and Missouri to sue the Biden administration in April 2021, arguing that canceling MPP violated administrative and immigration laws and that without the program, human trafficking would increase and force the states to expend resources on migrants — such as providing driver’s licenses, educating migrant children and providing hospital care.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the district court to determine if terminating the policy violated any administrative laws.
The case reached the Supreme Court after a federal district judge in Texas ruled last year that the Biden administration violated immigration law by not detaining every immigrant attempting to enter the country. In August 2021, U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk ordered the Biden administration to reinstate the policy.
The Biden administration argued it has the discretion to end the program and that it was not an effective way to deal with migrants seeking asylum.
About 70,000 asylum-seekers have been sent to Mexico through MPP, leading to refugee camps on the Mexican side of the border, where many migrants became targets for kidnappers and drug cartels. Since the program resumed in December, immigration officials have enrolled just over 5,100 migrants as of May 31, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
Human Rights First, a New York-based organization, recorded 1,544 cases of killings, rapes and kidnappings of migrants who were forced to remain in Mexico between MPP’s launch in January 2019 and January 2021, when the Biden administration initially suspended the policy. One woman enrolled in the program told The Texas Tribune that she had been raped by a Ciudad Juárez police officer as she waited in Mexico.
On average, it takes five years for a migrant to get a decision on their asylum case. Under a new plan that went into effect this year, the Biden administration’s goal is to wrap up asylum cases within six months for some asylum-seekers.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a separate lawsuit against the Biden administration on April 28 to attempt to halt the new asylum plan. Kacsmaryk, who is based in Amarillo, is also overseeing that case, which remains pending.
A group of asylum seekers gather at the Paso Del Norte International Bridge in Ciudad Juárez in February 2020. The group sought entry into the United States after learning that the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy was blocked by a federal court. Photo Credit: Jordyn Rozensky for The Texas Tribune
