The Supreme Court supports the government’s decision to end the ‘Remain in Mexico’ program

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Biden Administration properly ended the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program, known as “Remain in Mexico,” a Trump administration policy that forced asylum seekers in the United States to wait. in Mexico.

The justices’ 5-4 decision for the administration came in a case about the “Remain in Mexico” policy under President Donald Trump. Chief Justice John Roberts drafted the decision and was joined by fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, as well as the court’s three liberal justices: Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

President Joe Biden suspended the program on his first day in office in January 2021. But lower courts ordered it restored in response to a lawsuit by Republicans from Texas and Missouri. The current administration has sent far fewer people back to Mexico than the Trump administration.

At the heart of the legal fight was whether immigration authorities, with far less detention capacity than necessary, had to send people to Mexico or whether they had the discretion under federal law to release asylum seekers in the United States. United as they awaited their hearings.

Some 70,000 people signed up for the program, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, after President Donald Trump launched it in 2019 and made it a centerpiece of efforts to deter asylum seekers.

I also visited: From border to border: The dilemma of migrants.

After Biden’s suspension of the program, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ended it in June 2021. In October, the department presented additional justifications for the policy’s demise, to no avail in court.

The program resumed in December, but only 3,000 migrants had signed up by the end of March, during a period when authorities stopped migrants some 700,000 times at the US-Mexico border.

Democratic-led states and progressive groups sided with the administration. Republican-led states and conservative groups sided with Texas and Missouri.

mixed reactions

The Republican party on Capitol Hill, opposed to the relaxation of the strong immigration measures imposed by Trump, reacted immediately to Biden’s policy advance for the management of the southwest border.

“This decision will send another signal to human trafficking networks and cartels that the US border is open,” Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said in a statement.

Senator Rubio, who is also the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, argued that “President Biden’s reckless rhetoric and actions are encouraging illegal migration and harming our nation.”

The Republican Congressman, also for Florida Carlos Gimenez, also attacked the immigration policy of the White House. “Our communities are at risk due to Biden’s reckless decision to end Remain in Mexico,” he tweeted.

At the other end of the political spectrum, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who chairs the House Foreign Relations Committee, praised the Supreme Court’s decision.

“I am glad that the Supreme Court is giving way for the Biden Administration to finally reverse this xenophobic policy once and for all,” he said.

In addition, Menéndez appealed to the symbolic image of the US as a receiving nation of immigrants. “We must commit to finishing the difficult work ahead to meet our international and domestic legal obligations towards asylum seekers and to redress our status as a symbol of hope and opportunity for those fleeing violence and persecution.”

Ben Ray Luján, also a Democratic senator from New Mexico, also celebrated the announcement of the main US court regarding the immigration issue.

“It is the first step to remedy years of humanitarian injustice. The MPP has inflicted irreparable harm on nearly hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and has damaged our status as a leader in refugee protection,” Luján said in a message via Twitter. a tweet.

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