A federal judge has ordered the Biden administration to reinstate and enforce a Trump-era policy that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their U.S. court hearings “in good faith.”
The so-called Remain in Mexico program, enacted by President Donald Trump in 2018 and formally repealed by Biden’s Department of Homeland Security on June 1, must be enforced, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled in Amarillo, Texas, on Friday.
According to the policy, border authorities instructed 68,000 asylum seekers to return to Mexico, where human rights groups claim they are forced to seek sanctuary in filthy and hazardous tent camps on the Mexican side of the border.
In the action, Kacsmaryk, a Trump nominee, ruled in favor of the states of Texas and Missouri, agreeing with them that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas did not give enough weight to the program’s “primary advantages.”
He concluded that Mayorkas erred in arguing that the MPP was “arbitrary” and in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, or APA, a statute designed to prohibit “capricious” execution of administration policies.
Kacsmaryk also agreed with the states that the policy’s reversal hurts them since asylum seekers who are permitted to wait in the United States are more likely to use government services and send their children to American schools.
He directed the administration to “enforce and execute the MPP in good faith until it has been properly revoked in accordance with the APA and until the federal government has appropriate detention capacity” to keep asylum seekers.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt stated in a statement that the ruling is “a major step toward protecting the border.”
“The Biden administration’s weak border policies heighten the likelihood of human trafficking along the border and, as a result, in Missouri.”
