In a blow to President Joe Biden’s efforts to swing the nation’s southern border wide open, a federal judge blocked the White House’s decision to dismiss the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy.
The successful protocol forces asylum seekers to be quickly returned to Mexico while their legal cases proceed. This counters the administration’s preferred tactic of either “catch-and-release” or detaining and supporting illegal migrants within the country.
I sued Biden nearly 2 yrs. ago to keep Remain-in-Mexico. The Admin played games all the way to SCOTUS, but tonight Texas & USA WINS.
I just secured an order from a federal court ordering Biden not to scrap the program.
Biden’s open-border agenda won’t survive my legal attacks.
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) December 16, 2022
Biden fought the policy, officially titled the Migrant Protection Protocols, from virtually his first moments in office. Over 70,000 asylum-seekers were returned to Mexico under its guidance.
The president won a rare victory in the U.S. Supreme Court in June with a 5-4 ruling that he could terminate the policy. The majority said that the administration did not violate federal law by seeking to end Remain in Mexico.
The decision came in a case brought by multiple states attempting to keep the policy intact.
However, the justices sent the case back to lower courts for further clarification, opening up the possibility that the policy could remain in effect.
That led to U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s ruling this week that one of the litigants, Texas, met all requirements for issuing a preliminary injunction. The decision meant the state showed the likelihood of irreparable harm as well as the public interest being served.
Kacsmaryk wrote that the Biden administration did not adequately consider benefits of the policy’s enforcement or costs to the states if the policy ended.
He added that the White House did not take into account the level that states rely on the federal government for immigration enforcement.
Residents along the southern border are already bracing for the looming end of another Trump-era policy. Title 42 is set to expire on Dec. 21, and the high-effective protocol enabled Customs and Border Protection to rapidly send illegal migrants back into Mexico.
There is already a massive surge of migrants in anticipation of the rule change.
The federal judge’s ruling is a win for common sense and national security. It directly counteracted the Biden administration’s preferred “catch-and-release” actions that resulted in millions of illegal migrants set loose in the country — likely to never be heard from again.
