The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, overturning a decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ninth Circuit Ruled Against Policy
The Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), ensures that asylum seekers stay on the Mexican side of the border while they wait for their asylum requests to be processed. Last week, the policy was challenged by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and said that it would block the policy within Arizona and California, the two border states over which it has jurisdiction.
Judges William Fletcher and Richard Paez said on February 28th that the “return-to-a-contiguous-territory provision” within US immigration law only applied to “other aliens,” a small category compared to the vast floods of migrants who arrived at the borders. They added that the position also violates international treaties, as asylum seekers would potentially be sent to areas where they were subject to “torture and persecution.”
Judy Rabinovtiz, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said that the Supreme Court should “unequivocally [declare] this policy to be illegal,” and follow the decision of the Ninth Circuit.
“Asylum-seekers face grave danger and irreversible harm every day this depraved policy remains in effect,” Rabinovitz said.
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The Supreme Court Protects This Country!
However, this temporary hold was then overturned by the Supreme Court, who ruled that the “Remain in Mexico” policy could continue while litigation against it proceeds in the lower courts.
“The application for stay presented to Justice Kagan and by her referred to the Court is granted, and the district court’s April 8, 2019 order granting a preliminary injunction is stayed pending the timely filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari,” the Supreme Court wrote in an argument, noting that Justice Sotomayor opposed the application by the Trump administration for the temporary stay.
The Justice Department welcomed the decision, saying the order restores “the government’s ability to manage the Southwest border and to work cooperatively with the Mexican government to address illegal immigration,” adding that they are “gratified that the Supreme Court granted a stay, which prevents a district court injunction from impairing the security of our borders and the integrity of our immigration system.”
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The DoJ are exactly right. The “Remain in Mexico” policy protects this country from illegal asylum seekers hopping across the border and escaping into the unknown before their cases can be checked to see if they do have a right to protection in the country. Given the vast numbers of fraudulent cases that governments across the West are seeing, this first order by SCOTUS is very hopeful. Let’s just wait and hope that the lawsuit against it remains unsuccessful.