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News > U.S.

US Supreme Court Says Biden May End 'Remain-in-Mexico' Policy

  • Demonstration in front of the Supreme Court, Washington DC, U.S., April 26, 2022.

    Demonstration in front of the Supreme Court, Washington DC, U.S., April 26, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @great_thunberg

Published 1 July 2022
Opinion

The decision has implications beyond "Remain-in-Mexico" program, as it restricts the ability of lower courts to intervene in immigration enforcement and detention cases.

On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court ruled that President Joe Biden has the authority to end Donald Trump's "Remain-in-Mexico" policy, which compels migrants seeking asylum to wait south of the U.S. border while their applications are processed.

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The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), as the program is officially known, was denounced by human rights defenders and was suspended by Biden on taking office in January 2021. The states of Texas and Missouri, however, sued the Biden administration and a Trump-appointed federal judge issued an injunction to compel the government to resume the MPP.

Chief Justice John Roberts said that the use of the word "May" in the relevant immigration statute, makes clear that contiguous-territory return is a tool that the Department of Homeland Security Secretary "has the authority, but not the duty, to use."

The decision has implications beyond "Remain-in-Mexico", as it restricts the ability of lower courts to intervene in immigration enforcement and detention cases, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director of the American Immigration Council, said in a statement welcoming the end of the "cruel and inhumane Remain-in-Mexico program."

The image's phrase reads, "Inequality is the pandemic."

"Limiting access to justice to challenge immigration enforcement cases sets a dangerous precedent by giving agencies unchecked power to arrest, detain, and deport," he said.

Rep. Chuy Garcia, a Mexican-American Democrat who represents a district in Illinois, said the Supreme Court decision "underscores" the authority of the Biden administration "to take executive action on issues related to immigration and asylum."

To comply with the lower court order, the Biden administration reached an agreement last December with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) to reinstate Remain-in-Mexico. As of the beginning of Dec. 2021, over 26,500 migrants on MPP lists were in eight Mexican border cities, according to data from the University of Texas.

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