On Friday, late Friday, the Supreme Court suspended a lower court order that would have forced the Biden administration to restart the Trump-era practice of instructing migrants to wait in Mexico for their asylum hearings on Saturday.
Although temporary, the order signed by Judge Samuel Alito gave the Biden administration more time to fight the reinstatement of a border policy that it has strongly denounced as ineffective and inhumane. The suspension of the lower court order expires Tuesday at midnight.
Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump, instructed the Biden administration to revive the so-called “Rest in Mexico” program, saying it was given. for finishing illegally earlier this year.
Kacsmaryk ordered federal officials to implement the Trump-era border policy, officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), until it is “legally revoked” and the government has the capacity to detain all applicants. of asylum and migrants subject to mandatory detention under U.S. law.
The Biden administration argued that this judicial requirement would force the government to continue the policy of Permanence in Mexico “in perpetuity,” as the United States does not have enough detention space in migrant detention facilities.
After Kacsmaryk refused to suspend his sentence, the Biden administration asked the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene. On Thursday night, the appellate court declined to stop Kacsmaryk’s order, in accordance with the premise of his legal opinion.
In its emergency request to the Supreme Court on Friday, the administration said the rapid revival of the MPP program would “severely alter” operations along the U.S.-Mexico border and “threaten to create a diplomatic and humanitarian crisis “.
Administration officials have also said they cannot implement the MPP policy without the consent of the Mexican government, which should accept non-Mexican migrants returned by the United States.
The reinstatement of the program before Saturday would have been “almost impossible,” David Shahoulian, deputy secretary of Homeland Security, wrote in a court statement earlier this week.
In a statement to CBS News on Friday, the Mexican foreign ministry said the reactivation of the remnant rule in Mexico would be a “unilateral measure” by the United States. As of Friday afternoon, the Mexican government had not received any official notification of policy change, the ministry said.
Representatives of the Department of Homeland Security did not respond Friday to questions related to operational plans to restore MPP policy.
Under the Trump administration, more than 70,000 migrants from Central America and other countries such as Cuba and Venezuela were sent back to Mexico according to MPP rules. Many found themselves living in cardinal immigrant camps and in dangerous border towns.
The lawsuit over the termination of the Remain-in-Mexico policy is due to a lawsuit filed by Missouri and Texas, which has used litigation to block various immigration policies of the Biden administration.
On Thursday, a Texas federal judge demanded that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Act (ICE) stop enforcing directives that instructed deportation officers to focus on detaining migrants detained on the southern border. of immigrants with serious criminal convictions and who were considered a threat to national security. .
Judge Drew Tipton, another nominee for Mr. Trump, blocked the Biden administration’s plan to enact a 100-day deportation moratorium earlier this year. Texas also filed the lawsuit against the proposal.