the US Supreme Court has denied President Joe Biden’s effort to rescind an immigration policy implemented by his predecessor that forces people to wait in Mexico while seeking asylum in the United States.
With the three liberal justices in dissent, the court said Tuesday that the Biden administration likely violated federal law in its bid to rescind Donald Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by the former Republican president.
The move comes after a federal judge in Texas had ordered that the program be reinstated last week in response to a lawsuit by the attorneys general of Texas and Missouri.
In their lawsuit filed in April, the attorney’s general said reversing the policy resulted in a surge of migrants at the US-Mexico border that inflicted costs on the states.
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Both the federal judge in Texas and the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals refused the administration’s request to put the ruling on hold.
Justice Samuel Alito, who handles emergency requests from Texas, ordered a brief delay to allow the full court time to consider the administration’s appeal.
The Homeland Security Department said in a statement that it “respectfully disagrees with the district court’s decision and regrets that the Supreme Court declined to issue a stay”.
Meanwhile, Omar Jadwat, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the Trump policy, said the Biden administration must “take all steps available to fully end this illegal program, including by re-terminating it with a fuller explanation.”
Biden, a Democrat, had promised to quickly reverse many harsh aspects of the immigration agenda of his Republican predecessor Trump.
During his first days in office, Biden halted the controversial MPP border policy which was put into effect in 2019 by a memo from then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Under the policy, an estimated 68,000 migrants were returned to Mexico. For those who were subject to it, it meant waiting months, if not years, in squalid conditions and under the threat of sexual assault, extortion, and kidnapping.
