The Biden administration is rescinding former President Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy once again in an effort to fight a court ruling on the policy. Despite courts ruling that the Biden administration must continue to enforce the Trump-era policy Biden is trying to fight back.
The Hill reports:
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) first moved in June to scrap the policy, which Trump introduced in 2019, forcing would-be asylum seekers from a number of countries to await a potential ruling in their case in Mexico.
But that prompted a suit and initial victory from Texas and Missouri, which argued the Biden administration too hastily withdrew the policy, under which the U.S. transported 70,000 asylum-seekers to Mexico to await a determination in their case.
In drafting a new memo to rescind what’s formally called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), the Biden administration is taking a page out of the Trump playbook, using court rulings to sharpen the legal reasoning behind its decisions.
The memo won’t take immediate effect, according to Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas.
“After carefully considering the arguments, evidence, and perspectives presented by those who support re-implementation of MPP, those who support terminating the program, and those who have argued for continuing MPP in a modified form, I have determined that MPP should be terminated. In reaching this conclusion, I recognize that MPP likely contributed to reduced migratory flows. But it did so by imposing substantial and unjustifiable human costs on the individuals who were exposed to harm while waiting in Mexico,” Mayorkas wrote in the Friday memo, adding that the policy “fails to provide the fair process and humanitarian protections that all persons deserve.”
The Biden administration has fought hard to dismantle Trump-era policies since Biden’s inauguration. However, Biden’s continued pursuit to open the border has caused a massive surge of illegal migrants and resources and border agents have been quickly overwhelmed.
