Supreme Court reinstates Trump ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy Biden had cancelled

The U.S. Supreme Court is ordering the Biden administration to reinstate the Trump “Remain in Mexico” policy. It requires people seeking asylum to wait in Mexico until their case is heard.

The order from the nation’s highest court (pdf) states the Biden administration failed to show it had not acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner when it rescinded the policy, officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program. The policy was started by former President Donald Trump and was credited with greatly reducing the number of illegal entries into the country.

Immediately upon his inauguration in January, Joe Biden suspended the Remain in Mexico program, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in June officially terminated the policy.

The move triggered a lawsuit from Texas and Missouri, with the attorneys general arguing that DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas failed to provide “reasoned justification” to suspend the program.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, subsequently ordered the Biden administration to revive the program, but stayed his ruling until Aug. 21 to provide time for appeal.

A panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit on Aug. 19 rejected the government’s arguments, finding that the ending of the program “has caused an increase in unlawful immigration in Texas” and that Mayorkas did fail to consider several relevant factors, including the benefits of MPP and potential alternatives to the program.

The Biden administration has been roundly criticized for ending the program and causing a humanitarian crisis at the border. In July alone, 200,000 illegal entries occurred at the southern border. By some estimates, the US is on track to see 1 million illegal entries by the end of the year.

–Metro Voice and wire services