The Supreme Court Friday accepted the Biden administration’s appeal to lower court decisions that prevented the government’s closing down of the “Remain In Mexico” policy, which was enacted under former President Donald Trump.
This policy requires that most asylum seekers at the U.S. border must wait outside of the country to await the consideration of their claims.
After Texas and Missouri challenges, the Biden administration repeatedly attempted to end this program. According to the states, after President Joe Biden ended the policy, the number and quality of immigrants trying to enter the country soared.
According to the states, migrants are aware that while most asylum claims are denied, the majority of applicants can still be allowed into the U.S. while waiting. States argued that Trump’s policy removes this incentive.
According to the data of the nongovernmental Transactional Record Access Clearinghouse, at least 71.076 asylum seekers were sent back to Mexico under the policy to await court decisions in 2019 or 2020.
Since then, thousands of refugees from the war zone have established tent cities in the vicinity of the border.
George Fishman is a senior legal fellow at The Center for Immigration Studies. He has been critical of the impacts of undocumented migrants coming from Mexico and other parts of South America for years. Recently, he called the policy the “MVP of border enforcement.”
He wrote last month that “It was wildly effective, in a very real way being the closest thing to a miracle cure to bring about the control of the border,”
Advocates for asylum seekers claim that forcing people in desperate situations to wait outside a country that recognizes their right to asylum is illegal. Amnesty International opposed Remain in Mexico, also known as Migrant Protection Protocols. It argued that it denied the right to asylum “as enshrined by domestic and international law.”
Biden suspended all protocols on his first day of office.
However, Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas ruled that Remain Mexico must continue to determine the country’s policy towards asylum seekers crossing the border. The request by the Biden administration to pause this ruling was denied by the Supreme Court.
The administration reiterated its intent to end the policy in October. However, another federal court intervened to rule that the Department of Homeland Security doesn’t have the power to make laws “in a vacuum”. “
The Supreme Court will hear this case in its final week of oral argument, which is scheduled for late April.
