President Joe Biden‘s administration has asked the Supreme Court to review its case seeking to end former President Donald Trump‘s “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy.
Wednesday’s request follows a move by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court earlier this month when three Republican-appointed judges rejected the Biden administration’s appeal to end the Migrant Protection Protocols Program, otherwise known as “Remain in Mexico.” The lower court kept it in place, determining the Department of Homeland Security’s preemptive end of the policy under Biden was improper.
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“In short, the lower courts have commanded DHS to implement and enforce the short-lived and controversial MPP program in perpetuity. And they have done so despite determinations by the politically accountable Executive Branch that MPP is not the best tool for deterring unlawful migration; that MPP exposes migrants to unacceptable risks; and that MPP detracts from the Executive’s foreign-relations efforts to manage regional migration,” the Department of Justice wrote in a petition to Supreme Court justices.
The documents also request justices to take up the case this term, arguing the appeals court ruling disrupts other cases in which government policies on issues such as immigration detention are challenged.
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“Delaying review until next Term would likely postpone resolution of those critical issues until sometime in 2023,” the filing added. “In the meantime, the government would be forced to continue negotiating with Mexico to maintain a controversial program that it has already twice determined is no longer in the best interests of the United States.”
Biden suspended the Remain in Mexico policy upon taking office earlier this year and tried to end it in June. However, he was successfully sued by Texas and Missouri to reinstate it and lost an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The 5th Circuit’s ruling was penned by Judge Andrew Oldham, a Trump appointee, who argued the DHS proposal for the policy was “as unlawful as it is illogical.”
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The DOJ added that the court of appeals decided the U.S. code requires DHS to maintain the MPP policy, arguing if that is true, then all previous administrations have violated federal law since 1997 when the specific code section took effect.
“In short, the lower courts have commanded DHS to implement and enforce the short-lived and controversial MPP program in perpetuity,” the petition states. “And they have done so despite determinations by the politically accountable Executive Branch that MPP is not the best tool for deterring unlawful migration.”
