A federal judge has blocked the Biden administration from ending the “Remain in Mexico” policy that former President Donald Trump introduced in 2019.
The policy requires asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico as they wait for their U.S. asylum hearings, rather than allow them to wait within the U.S. interior with no guarantee of them appearing for their court appearance.
The policy seeks to eliminate asylum fraud which is rampant within the system. Recent data shows that out of the approximately 45,000 Remain in Mexico cases since 2019, there are less than 740 asylum seekers who have warranted claims that would allow them to stay within the U.S.
The Biden administration has been trying to end the program since President Biden’s first day in office.
The case has been tossed back and forth within the court system like a hot potato, with the Supreme Court ruling in June that the Biden administration could end the Trump-era policy after lower courts had ruled the administration could not.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated the program, formally known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), “has endemic flaws, imposes unjustifiable human costs, and pulls resources and personnel away from other priority efforts to secure our border.”
“We welcome the Supreme Court’s decision affirming that the Secretary has the discretionary authority to terminate the program, and we will continue our efforts to terminate the program as soon as legally permissible,” the statement said after the Supreme Court’s June decision.
The Biden administration received a blow to its efforts to end the policy on Thursday when federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, sided with Texas and Missouri’s lawsuit that argued the White House’s action to end the policy was illegally “arbitrary and capricious.”
“I sued Biden nearly 2 yrs. ago to keep Remain-in-Mexico. The Admin played games all the way to SCOTUS, but tonight Texas & USA WINS. I just secured an order from a federal court ordering Biden not to scrap the program. Biden’s open-border agenda won’t survive my legal attacks,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted on Thursday.
The ruling comes as border states struggle to operate with the historic number of immigrants coming across the open southern border and just days before Title 42 is set to expire.
Daily Caller reporter @VenturaReport breaks down the Southern Border Crisis with Tucker Carlson: "Border Patrol officials are so overwhelmed…We're seeing a mass release of migrants onto the streets." pic.twitter.com/44F9uiSX9v
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) December 16, 2022
