SCOTUS Rules Biden Can Scrap Signature Trump-Era Immigration Policy

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Joe Biden’s decision to end the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy, which required asylum-seekers coming from the southern border to reside in Mexico while awaiting immigration hearings, did not violate federal immigration law.

In a 5-4 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the high court returned the case to lower courts for additional proceedings. By ruling for the administration, the court said it acted properly when it sought to end the “Remain in Mexico” policy, known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, enacted in 2019.

SUPREME COURT CONSIDERS BIDEN EFFORT TO END TRUMP ‘REMAIN IN MEXICO’ POLICY

Roberts was joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the court’s three liberal justices.

Biden v. Texas served as the administration’s challenge to the policy that required people seeking asylum at the southern border to wait in Mexico while their claims were pending or awaiting decisions.

After Biden entered the White House in January 2021, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued a memorandum in June 2021 ordering an end to the policy, prompting litigation challenges by the attorneys general of Texas and Missouri.

At the core of the legal fight is whether the immigration program is discretionary and may be ended, as the Justice Department argued for the administration, or whether it must be maintained to comply with what states argued was a congressional command not to release migrants through U.S. borders.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, sided with the challengers by blocking the Biden administration’s move to curtail the policy.

Kacsmaryk said the federal law requires the federal government to return asylum-seekers to Mexico or detain them at the southern border. The high court’s Thursday ruling reversed the district court’s decision.

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In a dissent joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, and Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Samuel Alito blamed the administration for releasing “into this country untold numbers of aliens who are very likely to be removed if they show up for their removal hearings.

“This practice violates the clear terms of the law, but the court looks the other way,” Alito said.