NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The Supreme Court will hear the Biden administration’s appeal in its efforts to end the “Remain-in-Mexico” policy — a key Trump-era border policy that the Biden administration abolished, but was then forced to re-establish under court order.
Oral arguments in the appeal will begin in the second week of April and a ruling will be expected by late June on whether the Biden administration can end the policy, which sees migrants sent back to Mexico for their immigration hearings instead of being released into the U.S. interior.
The program, established in 2019 and later expanded amid that year’s border crisis, was a central plank of the Trump administration’s efforts to end the “pull factors” bringing migrants north. Supporters said the program, which saw the building of court tents in places along the border, restored order to the asylum process and disincentivized illegal immigration. Critics said the program was cruel and led to migrants being put in danger of violence and kidnapping as they camped out in Mexico.
The Biden administration moved to unravel the policy after entering office, but a federal court found that it had done so unlawfully and ordered it restored. That ruling was later upheld by the Supreme Court and the program was restarted in December. It has since been expanded in January to include the Rio Grande Valley Sector.
BIDEN ADMIN EXPANDS TRUMP-ERA ‘REMAIN IN MEXICO’ TO RIO GRANDE VALLEY SECTOR, CITING COURT ORDER
While the administration has since been reluctantly re-establishing the program in line with the order, it has also issued a memo in October seeking to end the program lawfully after conducting the required analysis.
BIDEN ADMIN ENROLLED FEWER THAN 300 MIGRANTS IN ‘REMAIN IN MEXICO’ IN DECEMBER
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in the October memo 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,” he said.
Immigration activists have put increasing pressure on the Biden administration to end the program, while Republicans have warned that ending it will only fuel the ongoing crisis at the southern border.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn, this week asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) seeking an opinion on whether the October memorandum is subject to the Congressional Review Act – meaning Congress could vote to block the administration’s efforts to end the program.
Fox News’ William Mears contributed to this report.
