The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an ongoing challenge to the previous administration’s inhumane, anti-asylum Remain in Mexico policy—but only because the program is no more. The Biden administration announced on June 1 that it had formally ended the policy, which forced tens of thousands of asylum-seekers to wait out their U.S. immigration court dates in Mexico.
“The dismissal was not a surprise,” SCOTUSblog said. “The court in October 2020 had agreed to weigh in on the policy, but in February the Biden administration had asked the justices to take the case off the February argument calendar.” But what also makes Monday’s decision significant is that it was a loser for right-wing figures who sought to keep the policy alive.
“The order also turned aside as moot a request by a group of states, led by Texas, to join the lawsuit to defend the policy in the Biden administration’s place,” SCOTUSblog continued. Leading the pack was the very corrupt attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton. He’d claimed in his challenge that the policy was some sort of safety measure when in reality it put asylum-seekers in horrific danger. It’s one of the main reasons why advocates cheered the Biden administration’s decision to end the program.
“During the two years that the Trump administration forcibly returned people to danger under [Remain in Mexico], Human Rights First tracked at least 1,544 public reports of violent attacks against asylum seekers and migrants subjected to [Remain in Mexico], including kidnapping, rape, and murder,” the organization said earlier this month.
In ending the policy, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote in a memo that keeping it in place “would not be consistent with this administration’s vision and values and would be a poor use of the department’s resources.” Lower courts had previously ruled the policy was unlawful. Legal experts noted that Monday’s news means that the Supreme Court itself never made a final decision on the policy:
While Remain in Mexico is hopefully headed in the direction of the dustbin of history, another anti-asylum policy by the previous administration, the Stephen Miller-pushed Title 42, is still in place. While not confirmed, Axios reports the Biden administration is reportedly considering ending the deportation of families under the policy by July 31. “With every day's delay, refugees expelled to danger in MX & the countries they fled face tremendous violence and persecution,” Human Rights First tweeted. “The Biden admin. needs to treat this issue with the urgency it demands, and end TItle 42 now.”