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| Photo: JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ/REUTERS |
The Biden administration is appealing a lower-court order requiring it to maintain the Trump-era Remain in Mexico program
The Supreme Court on Tuesday considered the executive branch’s leeway over immigration policy, hearing the Biden administration’s appeal of lower court orders forcing it to maintain a Trump-era policy it sought to abandon.
At issue: the so-called Remain in Mexico program, which denies U.S. entry to asylum applicants from Central America while their cases are processed.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration moved away from the program and relied on other authorities to deny entry to migrants, particularly public-health orders under a provision known as Title 42. The Biden administration continued that practice, but with the lifting of other Covid-related health measures officials are now planning to end Title 42 exclusions.
Rather than revive the Remain in Mexico policy, which President Biden says exposes asylum applicants to unsafe conditions, the administration plans to use other measures to ease the burden on the immigration system, including hiring more asylum adjudicators to cut processing time from several years to about six months.
The states of Texas and Missouri challenged the Biden administration’s plan to end the policy, formally called the Migrant Protection Protocols, and both a federal-district court in Texas and the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in New Orleans, found several reasons to keep it in place. One provision of federal law says that noncitizens who enter the U.S. without authorization “shall be detained” during immigration proceedings, while another allows officials to deport those entering by land to the country they came from—in this instance, Mexico.
In her arguments Tuesday, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said several administrations had found it impossible to comply with the statute’s exact language. Government lockups lacked enough space and Congress hadn’t provided funding to expand them, she said. Meanwhile, expelling them required the cooperation of Mexico, a sovereign nation outside Washington’s control. --->READ MORE HERE
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| AP |
The Supreme Court on Tuesday is set to hear arguments from the Biden administration in their latest bid to end the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forces many asylum seekers to wait south of the US border for their hearings.
The Biden administration is appealing several lower court rulings which have required the 2019 immigration program – formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols – to remain in place, after President Biden paused it immediately after taking office and the Department of Homeland Security officially ended in June 2021.
Supporters of the policy – namely states Texas and Missouri which have sued to keep it in place – claim it helps reduce migrant flow into the US. Even DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said it likely led to fewer illegal border crossings in 2019, however he has noted that the policy has “substantial and unjustifiable human costs.”
When it was first active, approximately 70,000 people were sent back to Mexico as their cases remained pending. From December to mid-February, the administration shuttled 572 people south of the border.
The latest lower court ruling came in December, with an appeals court writing that the DHS “claims the power to implement a massive policy reversal — affecting billions of dollars and countless people — simply by typing out a new Word document and posting it on the internet.
The judges slammed the administration for having “no input from Congress, no ordinary rulemaking procedures, and no judicial review. “ --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories:
Justices challenge Biden administration’s catch-and-release policy
Supreme Court considers Biden effort to end Trump 'Remain in Mexico' policy
Supreme Court Could Hand Biden an Immigration Win
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