The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied the Biden administration’s request to pause the implementation of a Trump-era immigration policy.
The Justice Department had asked the court late last week to delay the reinstatement of the policy, known as “Remain in Mexico,” arguing in its brief that the policy had been dormant for more than a year and that abruptly reinstating it “would prejudice the United States’ relations with vital regional partners, severely disrupt its operations at the southern border, and threaten to create a diplomatic and humanitarian crisis.”
A lower court had ordered the reinstatement of the program, forcing the administration to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The policy was meant to discourage asylum-seekers but critics argue that it denies people the legal right to seek protection in the U.S. and forced them to wait in dangerous Mexican border cities. It requires asylum seekers to remain in Mexico until their court date in the U.S. and previously left tens of thousands of Central American migrants waiting in tent cities in places like Matamoros, Mexico, where they were often subjected to robbery, kidnapping and assault.
President Joe Biden also suspended the policy on his first day in office. In addition, in June, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it was permanently terminating the program.
The Trump administration largely stopped using the “Remain in Mexico” policy at the onset of the pandemic because of the issuance of a public health order that allowed the U.S. to turn back virtually everyone crossing the Southwest border. That public health order remains in effect.
Attorneys general in Missouri and Texas sued the Biden administration to reinstate the policy, claiming the high number of asylum seekers was burdening states without DHS being able to detain them. Texas and Missouri also argued that the Biden administration had not gone through proper administrative procedures in ending the policy.
The Biden administration had appealed to the Supreme Court for an emergency stay on the order, but Tuesday night the Supreme Court denied the stay because, “The applicants have failed to show a likelihood of success” that they would win their claim to rescind the policy.
Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, called on lawmakers and the White House to end the program.
“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. “The government must take all steps available to fully end this illegal program, including by re-terminating it with a fuller explanation. What it must not do is use this decision as cover for abandoning its commitment to restore a fair asylum system.”
Paola Luisi, director of Families Belong Together, a coalition of more than 250 advocacy organizations, also pressed the Biden administration to end the program.
“We cannot accept any policy — even temporary — that separates families. We urge the Biden administration to do everything within their means to put an end to this cruel ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy once and for all,” Luisi said in a statement.
Julia Ainsley and The Associated Press contributed.