The government of President Joe Biden asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to review a ruling that kept the “Stay in Mexico” program in force, which obliges asylum seekers to remain in the neighboring country while their cases are resolved in the United States.
Specifically, the Administration requested that the decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals be reviewed, which on December 13 rejected the Executive’s request to block an order from a federal judge that agreed with Texas and Missouri in their lawsuit against Biden’s decision to end that program.
In addition, the Government requested “respectfully” to the Supreme arguments of this lawsuit to be heard in this period, to warn that delaying the review until the next term would postpone its decision “until sometime in 2023”.
The petition also argued that the MPP “is not the best tool” to deter irregular migration, exposes migrants “to unacceptable risks” and detracts from the government’s efforts to manage migration.
He also complained that the court order interferes with the Executive’s work on immigration and foreign policy.
On December 6, the Biden Government had to reestablish the Migrant Protection Protocols, the formal designation of the “Stay in Mexico” program, obeying the decision of Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in favor of the attorneys general of Texas and Missouri.
Biden appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in hopes of blocking the ruling, but Judge Andrew Stephen Oldham opined that the proposal from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – which is in charge of the immigration system and the safeguarding the borders – to put an end to the MPP was “an approach as illegal as it is illogical .”
As early as last August, the government had made an emergency request to suspend Kacsmaryk’s order claiming that DHS had no resources to resume MPP, but appeals judges sided with the plaintiff states.
On October 29, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued a new memorandum that once again terminated the MPP, supposedly complying with the objections raised by Kacsmaryk, although this new step did not convince Magistrate Oldham.
Under the MPP program, the Trump administration sent some 60,000 illegal immigrants who crossed the border to wait in Mexico for their appointments before immigration judges.