A federal judge ruled Friday that the Biden administration must revive a Trump-era immigration policy that required migrants seeking U.S. asylum at the southern border to stay in Mexico while their applications are pending after a lawsuit from Texas and Missouri that claimed the termination of the policy was illegal and harmful.
U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk in Texas said that the Remain-in-Mexico policy must be reinstated and that the Biden administration "failed to consider several critical factors" of the policy that included the benefits of the program.
Friday's ruling came after the two Republican states requested a preliminary injunction against the administration's formal suspension of the policy, which is officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, according to FOX News. They claimed that ending the policy violated the Administrative Procedures Act. The MPP was suspended by President Joe Biden in January, shortly after he took office.
?? Texas vs. Biden
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 14, 2021
The immigration laws passed by Congress must be enforced!! pic.twitter.com/Hb2qO7cmDS
And while the Biden administration is required "to enforce and implement MPP in good faith" until it has been "lawfully rescinded" in accordance with the APA, and until the federal government has ample space in detention facilities to house all migrants that must be detained, the judge noted that the injunction does not mandate further deportations.
"Nothing in this injunction requires DHS to take any immigration or removal action nor withhold its statutory discretion towards any individual that it would not otherwise take," Kacsmaryk said in his ruling.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a June 1 memo that Trump's policy "does not adequately or sustainably enhance border management in such a way as to justify the program’s extensive operational burdens and other shortfalls."
But in his 53-page ruling, Kacsmaryk said Mayorkas had not shown evidence of a "reasoned decision" for ending the program. The Trump-appointed judge also ruled that the HHS secretary had not addressed "the problems created by false claims of asylum" or that many asylum seekers are "found non-meritorious by federal immigration judges."
Attorney generals in Texas and Missouri praised the ruling.
"We just won our second immigration lawsuit against the Biden Admin! They unlawfully tried to shut down the legal and effective Remain-in-Mexico program, but #Texas and Missouri wouldn’t have it," the Texas attorney general said in a tweet. "Together we sued, and just handed Biden yet another major loss!"
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said in a statement that the decision was "a big step toward securing the border."
Kacsmaryk has put the ruling on hold for a week to allow the Biden administration to appeal.
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