On Friday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ordered the Biden Administration to reinstate the effective Migrant Protection Protocols (Remain in Mexico), stating that DHS “failed to consider several critical factors” before ending the program.
In Judge Kacsmaryk’s 53-page ruling, he explained that these factors included ignoring how effective the program was in weeding out fraudulent asylum claims, noting that those with claims that lacked merit began voluntarily returning home rather than waiting in Mexico for the asylum application to be denied.
Biden’s DHS Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, formally ended the Remain in Mexico program on June 1 of this year, though a strong argument can be made that the program ended in practice the day Joe Biden was elected.
In a June 1 memorandum, Mayorkas said a department review determined the Remain in Mexico program “does not adequately or sustainably enhance border management in such a way as to justify the program’s extensive operational burdens and other shortfalls.”
Judge Kacsmaryk stated that the memo fails to mention some of the primary benefits of the program:
At the very least, the Secretary was required to show a reasoned decision for discounting the benefits of MPP. Instead, the June 1 Memorandum does not address the problems created by false claims of asylum or how MPP addressed those problems. Likewise, it does not address the fact that DHS previously found that ‘approximately 9 out of 10 asylum claims from Northern Triangle countries are ultimately found non-meritorious by federal immigration judges,’ and that MPP discouraged such aliens from traveling and attempting to cross the border in the first place.
That made the policy change “both arbitrary and capricious,” the judge stated; adding:
Moreover, the public interest favors Plaintiffs because the public has an “interest in stemming the flow of illegal immigration.” United States v. Escobar, No. 2:17-CR-529, 2017 WL 5749620 at *2 (S.D. Tex. Nov. 28, 2017) (citing United States v. Martinez–Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 556–58 (1976)). And the public has an interest in the enforcement of immigration laws, including Section 1225. Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Pub. L. No. 99-603, § 115, 100 Stat 3359, 3384 (1986) (“[T]he immigration laws of the United States should be enforced vigorously and uniformly.”)
The Epoch Times reports that Judge Kacsmaryk ordered the Biden administration to resume MPP, though he stayed his order for seven days to let the federal government seek emergency relief at an appeals court.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who brought the lawsuit, said the ruling showed the Biden administration “unlawfully tried to shut down the legal and effective Remain-in-Mexico program.”
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt described the ruling as a “huge win for border security and the rule of law.”
For the complete article, please visit the Epoch Times.
