On Friday, a federal judge delivered a major defeat to the Biden administration and a massive win to the American people. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas ordered the Biden administration to reinstate Trump’s successful “remain in Mexico” policy on Friday. To quote Judge Kacsmaryk, “By ignoring its own previous assessment on the importance of deterring meritless asylum applications without a reasoned analysis for the change, Defendants acted arbitrarily and capriciously. Second, the Secretary also failed to consider the warnings by career DHS personnel that the suspension of the MPP, along with other policies, would lead to a resurgence of illegal aliens attempting to illegally cross the border.”
Judge Kacsmaryk’s decision came after Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration for stopping the “Remain in Mexico” policy. The lawsuit alleged that Biden’s abolition of the policy both violated federal immigration law and was “arbitrary and capricious.”
The “remain in Mexico” policy requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their U.S. court date. This is extremely important as 73.7 percent of asylum applicants in FY 2020 were denied, and less than 1 percent of applicants under the “remain in Mexico” program have been found to have a legitimate asylum claim. Judge Kacsmaryk declared that each released school-age non-citizen will cost states thousands of dollars each year. To quote the ruling, “Some school-age child aliens who would have otherwise been enrolled in MPP are being released or paroled into the United States. Texas estimates that the average funding entitlement for 2021 will be $9,216 per student in attendance for an entire school year. For students qualifying for bilingual education services, it would cost Texas $11,432 for education per child for attendance for an entire school year. The total costs to Texas (and Missouri) of providing public education for illegal alien children will rise in the future as the number of illegal alien children present in the State increases.”
Biden suspended the Migrant Protection Program on January 20, 2021. Biden’s Department of Homeland Security formally rescinded the program on June 1, 2021. There was no reason whatsoever to end this demonstrably successful policy. As a matter of fact, there were more reasons than ever to have the “remain in Mexico” policy implemented in recent months, as illegal border crossings have continued to climb and reach record levels.
The ruling is an enormous win for America and the rule of law, but it may have come too late. Since January, Biden’s DHS has released thousands of “remain in Mexico” applicants into the interior of the United States. Over 8,000 “remain in Mexico” applicants have been released into America by the Biden administration, with the majority of the non-citizens going to major cities in California and Texas. However, according to Judge Kacsmaryk, these releases violated federal law since DHS is supposed to either return or detain illegal border crossers. To quote the ruling, “Section 1225 provides the government two options vis-à-vis aliens seeking asylum: (1) mandatory detention; or (2) return to a contiguous territory. Failing to detain or return aliens pending their immigration proceedings violates Section 1225.”
Moreover, it is currently unclear whether or not Biden and his administration will fight and appeal the decision or if they are going to respect it. This uncertainty is exacerbated by the fact that Biden recently defied a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court and directed the Centers for Disease Control to issue a 60-day eviction moratorium.
Americans should not expect any positive action from Biden with regard to the border crisis that he created. Since he was inaugurated on January 20, 2021, Biden has made it a priority to put illegal immigrants over Americans. On his first day in office, Biden ended the construction of Trump’s border wall along the southern border, halted deportations for most illegal immigrants, restarted Obama’s illegal DACA program, and introduced a plan to provide citizenship to upwards of 11 million non-citizens. Since then, Biden and his administration have exponentially raised the annual refugee cap, provided at least $86.9 million worth of hotel rooms to non-citizens, and helped transport illegal immigrants across America via buses and airplanes.
Biden’s immigration policies have continually been ruled unlawful in court. This ironically means that Biden and his administration are acting illegally with regard to illegal immigration. Sensible judges are admirable, but their rulings are often too little too late. For example, it took nine years for a federal judge to finally declare DACA unlawful and suspend the program. Biden’s string of losses in court shows that he either has no understanding or respect for American law and the Constitution, but the rulings mean very little to an inept executive branch that has a Mayorkas-led DHS and Pelosi/Schumer-led Congress to continue to enable the dangerous and illicit actions of Joe Biden. After all, if Biden does not even respect rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court, why would anyone expect him to respect a ruling from a lower judge?