A federal judge in the Northern District of Texas ordered Homeland Security to restart President Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, ruling Friday that the Biden administration cut too many corners when it scrapped the effective policy.
The Story
On April 13, 2021, the State of Texas and the State of Missouri filed suit against President Joe Biden, the United States, and the pertinent US agencies and officials challenging the suspension of the program.
In a 53-page opinion (see below), Judge Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, upheld the “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP) put in place by the Department of Homeland Security during the Trump administration. Under the MPP, the “Remain in Mexico” policy returned some migrants to Mexico pending their removal proceedings.
Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas rushed to scrap the policy, officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, without considering the benefits of pushing border jumpers back across the boundary to Mexico to await their immigration court dates.
“Defendants are ordered to enforce and implement MPP in good faith until such time as it has been lawfully rescinded in compliance with the [Administrative Procedures Act] and until such a time as the federal government has sufficient detention capacity to detain all aliens subject to mandatory detention,” the judge wrote.
This is a big blow to Puppet Joe who wants millions more to pour in so they can vote Democrat after he gives them citizenship.
Judge Kacsmaryk’s opinion specifically finds that:
- The termination of MPP increases the number of aliens present in the United States
- Texas and Missouri have suffered injuries because of the increased numbers of aliens present in their states
Further, Judge Kacsmaryk concluded that the termination of the MPP violated the APA (Administrative Procedures Act) and forced the Defendants to violate 8 U.S.C. § 1225 (which provides the government with two options as to asylum-seeking aliens — detention or return to a contiguous territory).
The Court ordered Defendants permanently enjoined and restrained from implementing/enforcing the June Memorandum (which terminated the MPP), vacated the June Memorandum and remanded it to the DHS for further consideration, ordered Defendants to enforce and implement MPP in good faith unless/until it is properly rescinded in accordance with the APA and Section 1225, ordered monthly reports detailing the number of encounters, expulsions, detention capacity and usage, and applications for asylum. The Order further specifies that the injunction applies nationwide, but stayed its application for seven days to allow the government time to seek emergency appellate relief (which it likely will do).
OPEN BORDERS ACTIVISTS OBJECT
Immigrant-rights activists [open borders agitators] argued the policy was cruel to the migrants, sending them back to rough conditions in Mexico, where some of them were kidnapped, raped or faced other hardships at the hands of smuggling cartels.
That happens to them as they travel with cartels to come into the USA illegally.
Mayorkas officially ended MPP in June, though the Biden administration had ordered a stop to new enrollments in January, and has attempted to bring in tens of thousands of people who’d still been waiting in Mexico.
Judge Kacsmaryk linked the unprecedented surge in illegal immigration in the ensuing months to the end of MPP. But Mayorkas ignored that connection in his memo canceling MPP.
The judge repeatedly and harshly criticized Mayorkas for sloppy language in his June memo.
At one point Mayorkas said he had “questions” about how often people shunted into the MPP were discouraged from pursuing valid immigration cases, versus giving up on bogus claims. The judge, though, said it was Mr. Mayorkas’s “job to answer such questions,” rather than use the ambiguity as a reason for decision-making.
READ THE OPINION
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