On Tuesday the Supreme Court made a major declaration regarding immigration decisions implemented during the Trump administration. The “Biden administration must comply with a lower court’s ruling to reinstate President Donald Trump’s policy that required many asylum seekers to wait outside the United States for their cases to be decided” reports the Washington Post.
The Biden administration had asked the lower “court to put on hold a federal judge’s order that the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) had to be immediately reimplemented.” Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled the Biden administration did not provide an “adequate reason for getting rid of the policy and that its procedures regarding asylum seekers who enter the country were unlawful.”
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority agreed that the administration did not justify the policy change. The administration “failed to show a likelihood of success on the claim that the memorandum rescinding the Migrant Protection Protocols was not arbitrary and capricious,” the court said.
Liberal Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan would have granted the administration’s request particularly using the pandemic-related evictions moratorium as justification. Now, “the court is considering a request that it dissolves the pandemic-related evictions moratorium implemented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about which the court’s most conservative justices have already expressed skepticism” reports the Post.
The Court cited a decision from 2020 in its decision of a case which “stopped the Trump administration from dismantling the Obama-era program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which protected undocumented immigrants who were brought into the country as children.”
The Post writes that the court’s action “could be an ominous sign or the new administration.” Additionally, “it is unclear exactly what effect the ruling will have” because the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it will continue to challenge the district court ruling.
Homeland Security’s statement read, “As the appeal process continues, however, DHS will comply with the order in good faith,” the statement said. “Alongside interagency partners, DHS has begun to engage with the Government of Mexico in diplomatic discussions surrounding the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). DHS remains committed to building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system that upholds our laws and values.”
