The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled for the Biden administration on a controversial immigration policy, saying it had the authority to reverse a Trump-era initiative that requires asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their cases are reviewed in U.S. courts.
Lower courts had gone too far in requiring President Biden to keep in place policies that intruded on his ability to carry out the nation’s immigration procedures and foreign policy, wrote Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. It was a rare win for the administration at the Supreme Court this term, and for the court’s liberal members who found themselves in the majority.
The vote was 5 to 4, with Roberts writing for himself and fellow conservative Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, plus Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan from the left.
At issue were the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) put in place by the Trump administration. Better known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, it requires some asylum seekers who enter the country, mainly from Central and South America, to return to Mexico while they await a hearing. President Donald Trump said the program was necessary to curb what his administration characterized as a flood of meritless asylum claims by migrants seeking to be released into the United States.
The justices had expedited review of Biden’s attempt to get rid of the policy after a lower court judge said that the administration had not provided sufficient justification for ending it and that its procedures were unlawful.
Roberts said federal immigration law gives the executive discretion: He may return asylum seekers to Mexico, but is not required to do so.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett dissented. Barrett said she agreed with much of the majority’s reasoning, but thought that the court should not have decided the case and should have remanded it to lower courts.
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SOURCE: The Washington Post, Robert Barnes
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