Biden Administration Asks Supreme Court To Keep It From Having To Continue Trump’s ‘Remain In Mexico’ Policy

Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered the Biden administration to keep in place a policy enacted under former President Donald Trump known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, referring to illegal immigrants crossing the border.

On Friday, the Biden administration “filed an emergency request with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to avoid having to reinstate a Trump-era policy that requires asylum seekers at the southern border to wait in Mexico for their cases to be processed,” Bloomberg reported.

“The filing comes a day after a federal appeals court refused to lift a Saturday reinstatement deadline imposed by a trial judge who said the Department of Homeland Security gave an inadequate explanation when it rescinded the so-called ‘remain in Mexico’ policy June 1,” the outlet continued.

The Biden administration requested that the recission stay in place while legal challenges against the party work their way through the system. As Bloomberg reported, the emergency request was filed with Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who handles such matters filed in Texas. It is now up to Alito to act alone or refer the matter to the full Supreme Court.

As The Daily Wire previously reported, Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, ordered the Biden administration to “enforce and implement [Migrant Protection Protocols, commonly referred to as ‘Remain in Mexico’] in good faith until such a time as it has been lawfully rescinded in compliance with the [Administrative Procedure Act] and until such a time as the federal government has sufficient detention capacity to detain all aliens subject to mandatory detention under Section 1255 without releasing any aliens because of a lack of detention resources.”

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who filed the lawsuit along with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, explained why the Remain-in-Mexico policy was necessary:

Aimed at reducing a key incentive to illegal immigration – the ability to stay in the United States during immigration proceedings, even without valid claims to asylum – the Migrant Protection Protocols were implemented by President Trump in 2018 and related to migrants who have no legal entitlement to enter the United States but who depart from a third country and transit through Mexico to reach the United States land border.

Before the Migrant Protection Protocols were enacted by the Trump Administration, illegal aliens hoping to gain entry into the United States would attempt to “game” the immigration system by traveling from a third country like Guatemala or Nicaragua through Mexico and claiming asylum in the United States. More often than not, those who made unmeritorious or unsubstantiated claims for asylum were arrested at the border, given a notice to appear, and admitted into the United States. Those who were released into the interior often never showed up to their court dates and disappeared.

Through the Migrant Protection Protocols, migrants who were eligible for the MPP, which was determined by an immigration official at the border, were given a Notice to Appear and were returned to Mexico to await those proceedings. These protocols significantly reduced detention and enforcement burdens on the Department of Homeland Security and others. On January 20, 2021, President Biden suspended the Migrant Protection Protocols in a two-sentence memo. Today’s order completely vacated that memo.

In his ruling, Kacsmaryk gave the Biden administration a deadline of August 21 to restart the policy, which three appellate judges – all also appointed by Republicans – refused to overturn the deadline.

If Alito decides to take the case to the full Supreme Court, it would be a test for Chief Justice John Roberts, who ruled during the Trump administration that it had to continue an Obama-era immigration policy aimed at children who were brought into the U.S. illegally by their parents.

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