WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is seeking Supreme Court approval to end a controversial Trump-era immigration program that forces some people seeking asylum in the United States to wait for their hearings in Mexico.
The justices will hear arguments Tuesday in the administration’s appeal of lower court rulings that required immigration officials to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy. that the administration “has twice determined that it is not in the interest of the United States,” according to court documents.
Texas and Missouri, which sued to keep the program, said it has helped reduce the flow of people into the US at the southern border. “Many file meritless immigration claims, including asylum claims, in the hope that they will be released into the United States,” the states told the Supreme Court in a filing.
Some 70,000 people signed up for the program, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, after President Donald Trump launched it in 2019 and made it a centerpiece of efforts to deter asylum seekers.
President Joe Biden suspended it on his first day in office, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ended it in June 2021. In October, DHS presented additional justifications for the policy’s demise, to no avail. courts.
The program resumed in December, but only 3,000 migrants had signed up by the end of March, during a period when authorities detained migrants for around 700,000 times at the border.
At the heart of the legal fight is whether the program is discretionary and can be terminated, as the administration argues, or is essentially the only way to comply with what the states say is a Congressional order not to release the immigrants in question. if. the United States.
Without adequate detention facilities in the US, Texas and Missouri argue that the administration’s only option is to have immigrants wait in Mexico until their asylum hearings.
The two sides disagree separately on whether the way the administration ended the policy complies with a federal law that requires agencies to follow rules and explain the reasons for their actions.
Many of those forced to wait in Mexico say they are terrified in Mexico’s dangerous border cities and find it very difficult to find lawyers to handle their asylum hearings.
Democratic-led states and progressive groups side with the administration. Republican-led states and conservative groups have sided with Texas and Missouri. They include the America First Legal Foundation, run by former Trump advisers Stephen Miller and Mark Meadows.
As the court weighs the asylum policy, the administration is expected to end another key Trump-era border policy that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic. It allows the authorities to expel migrants without the possibility of applying for asylum. The decision to end the authority of Title 42Named for a 1944 public health law, May 23 is being legally challenged by 22 states and faces a growing divide within Biden’s Democratic Party.
Reference-apnews.com