Federal Judge reinstates Donald Trump’s ‘remain in Mexico’ policy for asylum seekers

Donald Trump had a policy that stated asylum seekers had to remain in Mexico while they awaited their hearings in the United States but back in June Joe Biden ended the policy. The State of Texas decided to sue the Biden administration to have the policy reinstated and now, according to this story, a Federal Judge in Texas has reinstated the policy. Here is more:

A federal judge has ordered the reinstatement of former President Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required border crossers claiming asylum to stay in Mexico while awaiting their hearings, after President Joe Biden ended the program earlier this year.

On Friday evening, Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, appointed by Trump, ordered the Biden administration to reinstate the Migration Protection Protocols (MPP), commonly known as Remain in Mexico, after ending the program June 1 while releasing thousands of border crossers enrolled in the program into the United States interior.

Kacsmaryk, in his ruling, states that the Biden administration violated federal law when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ended Remain in Mexico and failed to consider “several of the main benefits” of the program — including that border crossers returned to Mexico who did not have legitimate claims for asylum were returning to their native countries on their own.

“DHS’s first duty is to uphold American law,” Kacsmaryk writes. “It cannot just point at diplomatic efforts as an excuse to not follow the [Administrative Procedure Act] APA or fulfill its statutory obligations.”

In addition, Kacsmaryk states that the Biden administration violated federal law by when it began releasing border crossers enrolled in Remain in Mexico into the U.S. interior because the law requires DHS to detain or return border crossers.

Kacsmaryk ordered that the Biden administration is “permanently enjoined and restrained from implementing or enforcing the June 1 Memorandum” that had ended Remain in Mexico.

This is sure to be challenged by the Biden administration so we will see how “permanently enjoined and restrained” from implementing the new policy the Biden administration is, but the Supreme Court has already ruled once that the policy can remain in place when the rule was challenged during the Trump administration.