AMAC Exclusive – By Seamus Brennan
In a stunning blow to Joe Biden and the Democrats’ Open Borders agenda, the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the administration to reinstate Donald Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, or Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which contributed to the historic drop in illegal border crossings under the last administration.
In a 6-3 decision, the Court overturned an action by the Biden administration to cancel the policy, writing that the federal government “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’s three Democrat-appointed justices, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, each indicated they would have permitted cancellation of the policy but did not write dissenting opinions.
President Biden ordered a temporary halt on MPP his first day in office, followed by a complete cancellation of the program in June. In a June 1 memo, Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced a formal end to the policy, writing that “MPP does not adequately or sustainably enhance border management in such a way as to justify the program’s extensive operational burdens and other shortfalls.”
However, according to a March 2020 Heritage Foundation report, MPP significantly reduced the number of illegal border crossings since its implementation in January 2019, and allowed immigration courts at high-traffic locations to process legitimate asylum claims on a more efficient basis. Thanks to the Mexican government’s cooperation with the policy, more than 60,000 illegal aliens were returned to Mexico from the United States over the course of 13 months. Upon enactment of the policy, former Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf said MPP equipped the government to “take control of the crisis.”
The High Court’s ruling is ultimately a victory for the states of Texas and Missouri, both of which filed suit against the Biden administration for its repeal of MPP. U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Texas-based judge appointed by President Trump, accepted arguments from each of the states’ Republican attorneys general that Biden’s cancellation of the program failed to meet legal requirements, as outlined in the Administrative Procedure Act, for ending the policy—the same reasoning the Court used to prevent the Trump administration from rescinding the unconstitutional Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) praised the Court’s decision, writing that reinstation of ‘Remain in Mexico’ will halt “Biden’s skirting of immigration laws” and “reduce the record number of migrants entering illegally.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) similarly celebrated the ruling, tweeting that MPP “must be implemented now!”
In an August 25 statement, President Trump congratulated Paxton for the ruling: “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whom I strongly endorsed for reelection, has just won a major Supreme Court victory against the Biden Open Borders agenda,” he said. “Biden was found to have broken the law in terminating the Migrant Protection Protocols, or Remain in Mexico. Now, Biden must reinstate Remain in Mexico, one of my most successful and important programs in securing the border.”
Members of the Biden administration and others on the Left have predictably fired back against the decision. Biden’s Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it “respectfully disagrees with the district court’s decision,” vowing to “vigorously challenge” the district court’s order that was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court. Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, similarly decried the ruling as “incorrect”: “The Biden administration was correct to rescind the Trump return to Mexico policy, the whole point of which was to punish people for seeking asylum by trapping them in miserable and dangerous conditions,” he wrote.
As President Biden continues to subject the American people to arguably the most dire border crisis on record, the Supreme Court’s reinstation of MPP will resume one of the most effective illegal immigration deterrents in U.S. history, providing American families and communities with a limited line of defense against the Biden administration’s border negligence.
In his statement, President Trump urged other states to follow the lead of Texas and Missouri: “Other State Attorneys General should follow suit,” he advised, “and go after every one of Biden’s unlawful border and immigration policies.” In an era of seemingly unending national crises brought on by the Biden administration, legal battles like this one may prove to be the American people’s best hope—at least until the midterms next year.