Today, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Biden admin. can end the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as Remain in Mexico - a program that required asylum-seekers to wait for their immigration court hearings in Mexico.
Chief Justice John Roberts penned the 5-4 decision and rejected the arguments made by the states who sued to keep the program in place. SCOTUS ruled that the Biden admin.'s attempts to end the program "did not violate a 1996 migrant detention law and that a second memo terminating the program should have been considered by lower courts."
Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh joined Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Stephen Breyer to form the majority opinion. Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas comprised the dissents.
CBS summarizes Justice Roberts' opinion:
In his opinion, Roberts overturned a ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that forced border officials to revive the Remain in Mexico rules, in December. Roberts said the 1996 law authorizing the program does not require officials to return migrants to Mexico, but simply gives them the option to do so, noting the use of the word "may" in the statute.
If Congress meant for the law to require asylum-seekers to be returned to Mexico, Roberts wrote, "it would not have conveyed that intention through an unspoken inference in conflict with the unambiguous, express term 'may.'"
Roberts also noted that a court order mandating the use of the Remain in Mexico policy interfered with the president's broad powers to conduct foreign policy, since the Mexican government must accept the return of migrants to its territory.
In the Court's dissenting opinion, Justice Alito admitted that he agreed with the majority that lower courts lacked the authority to reinstate Remain in Mexico. However, he also noted several disagreements with the majority, arguing that immigration officials lack the power to release large numbers of migrants who are not returned to Mexico.
"Rather than implementing Remain in Mexico, Alito argued, the Biden administration decided to 'simply release into the country untold numbers of aliens who are very likely to be removed if they show up for their removal proceedings. This practice violates the clear terms of the law, but the Court looks the other way,' Alito wrote." reports CBS.
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