The Supreme Court has given President Joe Biden the power to end his predecessor Donald Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy, which restricted immigration.
In a 5-4 ruling Thursday morning, the Supreme Court said the immigration law gives the federal government discretionary power to end the program officially called Migrant Protection Protocols.
The Trump-era policy sent some non-Mexican citizens who entered the US illegally back to Mexico, rather than detain or release them in the US as their immigration procedures were underway.
It required asylum seekers, mostly from Central and South America, to be detained in the US or sent to Mexico to live in squalid camps for months or years, depending on their demands.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the immigration statue “clearly confers a discretionary power to return aliens to Mexico while their immigration process is pending.”
The use of the word “may” in the law question “makes it clear that contiguous territory is a tool that the (Department of Homeland Security) secretary “has the authority, but not the duty,” to use,” Roberts wrote. .
It marks a victory for the Biden administration, which has faced several setbacks and legal challenges in its efforts to reverse Trump’s tough immigration agenda.
The Biden administration had attempted to end the policy to stay in Mexico last June, but Trump-appointed federal district judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ordered the program to be restarted. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the decision at the time.
Judges Samuel Alito Jr, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch disagreed.
Alito wrote that the Department of Homeland Security should use its discretion to return migrants in cases where there is no alternative within the law.
“Instead of taking advantage of Congress’s clear legal alternative to return illegal aliens to Mexico while they await proceedings in this country, DHS has concluded that it can waive that option and instead simply send unmentionable foreign nationals. can release numbers of aliens who are very likely to be removed if they show up for their removal hearings,” Alito said.
“This practice violates the clear provisions of the law, but the court is looking the other way.”
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