The U.S. Supreme Court rules Biden administration can end ‘Remain in Mexico’ immigration policy

By Julián Aguilar, The Texas Newsroom

Published June 30, 2022 at 10:01 AM CDT

In this May 11, 2021, file photo, migrant women carry children in the rain at an intake area after turning themselves in upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in La Joya, Texas.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the Biden administration did not violate federal law when it ended a Trump-era immigration policy that requires most asylum seekers wait in Mexico for their immigration hearings.

The Migrant Protection Protocols, also called remain in Mexico, requires that most asylum seekers wait in Mexico until their hearings in American immigration courts. It began in California and expanded to the Texas-Mexico border in early 2019. It's forced more than 70,000 migrants back to Mexican border towns, which immigrant rights advocates have noted are continuously grappling with high violent-crime rates.

The decision is a setback for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filed suit against the Biden administration when the White House tried to rescind the policy in January 2021. The state of Missouri joined Texas in the litigation.

The states' attorneys general alleged the Biden administration did not follow proper procedure when it attempted to end the program.

The 5-4 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts said otherwise.

"The Government's rescission of MPP did not violate section 1225 of the [Immigration and Nationality Act], and the October 29 Memoranda did constitute final agency action," the opinion reads.

Paxton said in a statement he was disappointed with the ruling.

“Today's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court is an unfortunate one, and I believe it was wrongly decided. Over a year ago, Texas and Missouri sued the Biden Administration for illegally abandoning MPP. I won in district court and then won again on appeal. The Administration dragged its feet and refused to implement this effective program in good faith, allowing hundreds of thousands of illegals to pour over the border month after month,” he said.

The program won't immediately end however, as the case will be returned to a district court for further review.

Even with the MPP program in place, the number of migrants encountered by U.S. Border Patrol agents at the southern border continues to climb to near-record levels. There were about 239,400 encounters between federal agents and migrants at the southwest border in May, a 2% increase compared to April, according to Customs and Border Protection. Texas continues to see the highest number of apprehensions, especially in the Rio Grande Valley, where there have been more than 333,000 encounters since the beginning of the federal government's fiscal year in October, according to CBP statistics. That's followed by the Del Rio Sector, where there have been more than 280,600 in the same time frame.

This is a developing story.