US Supreme Court studies the future of the “Stay in Mexico” program


The judges of the United States Supreme Court considered Tuesday whether to allow the president Joe Biden terminate a immigration policy initiated by his predecessor, donald trumpwhich forced tens of thousands of migrants to remain in Mexico while awaiting hearings on their asylum applications.

The justices heard almost two hours of arguments in an appeal from the Biden administration to a lower court ruling that reinstated the policy of Trump from “Stay in Mexico” after the states of Texas and Missouri sued to keep the program.

Biden suspended the policy, which was upending a long-standing practice, shortly after taking office last year.

Some of the Conservative justices, who have a 6-3 majority on the Court, questioned the extent of the government’s discretion to release the migrants in the United Statesbut also Texas’ use of the courts to constrain the government in an area over which there normally is broad federal authority.

Chief Justice, Conservative John Robertssaid that the vision of the law that the Biden administration appears to have “no limit” on the number of people who can be released.

Roberts also told the Texas attorney general, Judd Stonethat it seemed “a little exaggerated” that the state “replace” the federal government to determine the best way to comply with the united states immigration law.

The Trump administration had argued that what it described as a humanitarian and security crisis in the border between the United States and Mexico justified their refusal permits to migrants seeking asylum out of fear of persecution in their home countries. The policy is formally called Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).

The dispute focuses on the degree of discretion that the Court considers that Biden and his government have to change the course of immigration policy.

In its appeal, the Biden administration said it is being “forced to reinstate and continue indefinitely a controversial policy” that exposes migrants to security risks, damages relations with Mexico and is not the best tool to deter immigration. illegal migration.

He added that lower courts are unacceptably interfering with the historically broad authority that presidents of USA have had on immigration and foreign affairs, a principle that the Supreme Court has long endorsed, even when Trump was in the White House.

At stake is the meaning of a provision in a 1996 immigration law that says certain immigrants “may be returned” to Mexican territory pending immigration proceedings.

The Biden administration said the provision is “unequivocally” discretionary and that the lower court’s decision means that each administration “has been in open and systematic violation” of the law since it was created.

Roughly 68,000 people availed themselves of the “Remain in Mexico” policy between the time it went into effect in 2019 and until Biden suspended it in 2021.



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