SCOTUS Rejects Appeal of “Remain in Mexico” Border Policy: Read It For Yourself
For a second time, the Supreme Court of the United States has acted for a second time on an emergency basis to leave the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” border policy in place despite the Biden Administrations efforts and promises to remove it.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday night rejected the Biden administration’s plea for a reprieve from a district-court order requiring it to reinstate a Trump-era program known as the “remain in Mexico” policy, which requires asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while they wait for a hearing in U.S. immigration court. The court was divided on the decision to deny relief, with the court’s three liberal justices – Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – indicating that they would have granted the government’s request and put the district court’s order on hold.
The decision means that the Biden administration must resume enforcing the policy “in good faith” while litigation continues in the lower courts.
Tuesday night’s order was the second time that the justices have acted on an emergency basis with respect to the “remain in Mexico” policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, which the Trump administration announced in 2018. In March 2020, the court allowed the Trump administration to begin enforcing the policy after a federal district judge in California blocked it. The Supreme Court later agreed to review a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit holding that the policy was likely inconsistent with both federal immigration law and international law, but the justices dismissed the case earlier this summer after the Biden administration ended the policy. Critics of the policy say that it forced people seeking asylum to reside in dangerous and unsanitary camps in Mexican border towns.
After the Biden administration ended the policy, Texas and Missouri went to federal court in Texas to challenge that decision. The states argue that the decision to terminate the policy violated federal immigration law and the federal law governing the procedures that federal agencies must follow. They also contend that, without the policy, large numbers of migrants can enter the United States based on dubious asylum claims, imposing costs on the states.
A federal district judge agreed with the states and ordered the Biden administration to reinstate the policy by Aug. 21. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit declined to put the ruling on hold to give the government time to appeal.
The Biden administration went to the Supreme Court on Friday, asking the justices to step in.
Read the Supreme Courts order on the “Remain in Mexico” border policy for yourself here:
"Remain in Mexico" border policy
