BREAKING: Supreme Court rules in Biden’s favor To End Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’

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OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion

The US Supreme Court overturned the policy of President Donald J. Trump called the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy for asylum seekers. The court ruled 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining the three liberal judges in the majority.

This is a win for the Biden Administration.

The Supreme Court said by a five to four vote that divided the court that the administration did not violate the rules and went about it all the right way when it tried to shut down the so-called ‘remain in Mexico’ or migrant protection protocol program that was launched during the Trump Administration.

But the question was what do you do with people who come into the United States across the Southern border? Seek Asylum. A federal judge in Texas had ruled in an earlier case, that you’ve got to send them back to Mexico.

And something like 70,000 people were, in fact, return to Mexico under the program.

Human rights groups said that those people there were subject to all sorts of crimes, kidnappings, rapes, and badly mistreated while they were waiting.

And the left considered the Trump program to be a disaster. So the Biden administration tried to shut it down shortly after he came into office, in the White House.

Two states, Texas and Mississippi sued to say ‘no, you didn’t go about it, the right way’ and today the Supreme Court said ‘yes, the administration did, and that they can continue with its plans to try to shut the program down.

According to the DHS, the program that Biden wants to take down- included the following language:

The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) are a U.S. Government action whereby certain foreign individuals entering or seeking admission to the U.S. from Mexico – illegally or without proper documentation – may be returned to Mexico and wait outside of the U.S. for the duration of their immigration proceedings, where Mexico will provide them with all appropriate humanitarian protections for the duration of their stay.

Why is DHS Instituting MPP?

The U.S. is facing a security and humanitarian crisis on the Southern border. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is using all appropriate resources and authorities to address the crisis and execute our missions to secure the borders, enforce immigration and customs laws, facilitate legal trade and travel, counter traffickers, smugglers and transnational criminal organizations, and interdict drugs and illegal contraband.

MPP will help restore a safe and orderly immigration process, decrease the number of those taking advantage of the immigration system, and the ability of smugglers and traffickers to prey on vulnerable populations, and reduce threats to life, national security, and public safety, while ensuring that vulnerable populations receive the protections they need.

Historically, illegal aliens to the U.S. were predominantly single adult males from Mexico who were generally removed within 48 hours if they had no legal right to stay; now over 60% are family units and unaccompanied children and 60% are non-Mexican. In FY17, CBP apprehended 94,285 family units from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador (Northern Triangle) at the Southern border. Of those, 99% remain in the country today.

ABC News reported on the ruling:

“Officially termed the “Migrant Protection Protocols” — or MPP — the policy was created in 2019 to send unauthorized immigrants, including asylum seekers, back to Mexico while their cases are processed in immigration court.”

Trump administration officials intended the policy to serve as a deterrent against flows of migrants along the southwest border. Human rights observers and immigrant advocacy organizations said the policy contravened international law, putting vulnerable people at risk of higher documented rates of kidnapping, extortion and violence in the areas they were forced to wait.

The INA says that the Department of Homeland Security “shall” detain unauthorized noncitizens pending immigration proceedings, but it also allows for their parole inside the country on a case-by-case basis if it’s determined to be for “public benefit.”

Congress has never allocated sufficient resources to fulfill the law’s requirement of detaining all migrants and asylum seekers pending an immigration hearing; every administration has had to exercise some level of discretion in enforcement.

The Biden administration argued that the MPP required costly and complicated negotiations with Mexico and that foreign policy authority rests solely with the president – not the states or federal courts.

Under President Donald Trump, roughly 70,000 migrants were enrolled in the program and sent back to Mexico to await immigration hearings in the U.S. So far, the Biden administration has enrolled 5,000 migrants in the program. Just 2.4% have been granted relief after their claims were heard, one recent study found.

The court’s decision comes as the flow of migrants to the southwest border continues to strain law enforcement and humanitarian resources. Customs and Border Protection reported 239,416 encounters with migrants in May, a two percent increase compared to April; a quarter of those were repeat offenders.

A separate Trump-era border enforcement policy known as Title 42 — activated during the pandemic to rapidly expel migrants due to COVID — remains in effect and unaffected by the court ruling. Biden has also tried to rescind Title 42, but lower courts have ordered it continued as legal challenges proceed.

According to SCOTUS Blog:

“The Supreme Court ALLOWS the Biden administration to terminate the controversial Trump-era asylum policy known as “remain in Mexico.” Red states argued that Biden was obliged to keep the policy, but SCOTUS says in a 5-4 ruling that the administration can end it.”

Source: The Republic Brief