The United States Supreme Court ordered on August 24 that President Joe Biden’s administration must reinstate a Trump-era immigration policy that requires migrants entering the U.S. at the southern border to wait in Mexico while U.S. officials process their asylum claims. Biden and the Department of Homeland Security had petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn Federal District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s August 13, 2021, ruling against the Biden administration over the president’s termination of the Migrant Protection Protocols (commonly called the “Remain In Mexico” policy).
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority ruling includes three justices appointed by Trump, the three liberal judges Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan would have allowed the Biden administration to continue the suspension of the program.
Kacsmaryk’s order to reinstate the Remain In Mexico policy goes into effect immediately. He ruled that the Biden administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it canceled the Remain In Mexico policy, and violated immigration laws that require the government to either detain or return to Mexico aliens crossing the border pending their immigration proceedings.
The Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) policy was implemented in January 2020 by the Trump administration and directed at immigrants entering the United States at the U.S. southern border. The new MPP program sends migrants who enter the U.S. illegally, or who appear at official places of entry along the U.S. border seeking asylum, to return to Mexico to await an American court date.
Immigrants claiming asylum under MPP policies must come and go across the border under U.S. custody to attend their hearings in the courts in the program, located in San Diego and Texas. Prior to MPP, most of these migrants were released inside the U.S. to wait for a court date.
The experienced immigration attorneys at Godoy Law Office in Chicago and Lombard offer assistance in family-based immigration matters to a range of people, including spouses, same-sex couples, fiancés, parents and children. We can also advise immigrants looking to secure status as permanent residents through the process of applying for a green card or citizenship. If you need help with an immigration issue, please contact our office or call us at 855-925-1551.
Se habla español.
