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A federal appeals court rejected the appeal of the Biden administration against the court order forcing it to resume the “Remain in Mexico” policy for asylum seekers.
The decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth District comes in response to a federal court decision that ruled in favor of the states of Texas and Missouri, which sued the Biden Administration for canceling the program.
The “Remain in Mexico” policy, whose official name is the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) was instituted by the Administration of now former President Donald Trump in 2019.
Instead of waiting for the immigration hearing stipulated by the law in U.S. territory, this policy forces asylum seekers to wait outside the United States for the adjudication process of their applications.
On the day of his presidential inauguration in January, Biden canceled MPP, but last week U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ordered the federal government to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” rule beginning next Saturday.
The Biden administration appealed to the Court of Appeals to stay Kacsmaryk’s order on the grounds that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not have the resources to resume the MPP.
This would not be the only blow to the White House as on Thursday, just as the Court of Appeals rejected the administration’s move, federal Judge Drew Tipton declared as invalid the priorities set by President Joe Biden’s Administration for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain undocumented migrants for deportation.
Congress had directed ICE to prioritize the detention of undocumented immigrants, and a February 18 Biden Administration memorandum stipulated that priority be given to detaining individuals who have committed serious crimes or who pose a threat to public safety and national security.
Tipton’s ruling struck down these priorities, siding with the states of Texas and Louisiana that had sued over the order.
Judge Tipton’s order gives the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until September 3 for the agency to report what it will do without the priorities.
