SUPREME COURT RULES 6-3 BIDEN MUST REINSTATE TRUMP-ERA 'REMAIN IN MEXICO' IMMIGRATION POLICY

 Newsweek 25 August 2021 - by Daniel Villarreal

© Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday 6-3 that the Trump-era 'Remain in Mexico' immigration policy must be reinstated. This photo shows a man being processed by a US Border Patrol agent in Sunland Park, New Mexico on July 22.

The Supreme Court has ruled 6-3 that the Biden Administration must re-instate the "remain in Mexico" immigration policy which began under Republican Donald Trump.

The court said that the Biden Administration failed to show that its memorandum repealing the policy wasn't "arbitrary and capricious."

The policy, instated by Trump on January 25, 2019, requires immigrants and asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while awaiting their immigration court proceedings in the United States. It was implemented as part of Trump's Migration Protection Protocols (MPP) program and followed through with his administration's aim of reducing the number of immigrants within the United States.

The Department of Homeland Security had sought to repeal Trump's policy in a June 1 memorandum. However, the states of Texas and Missouri quickly filed a lawsuit for an injunction.

Despite the court's ruling, the "remain in Mexico" policy doesn't affect every undocumented immigrant who arrives at the southern border, according to Justice for Immigrants, a U.S. Catholic immigration reform organization.

Unaccompanied children aren't subject to it nor are violent offenders and other known criminals who should be in jail with the U.S. or Mexico. The policy also doesn't apply to migrants with known mental or medical health issues or those who are determined by the Department of Homeland Security as likely to face persecution or torture if left within Mexico.

However, migrants awaiting their trials in Mexican border towns live in "inhumane" conditions and are "preyed upon by criminal organizations," a spokesman for Doctors Without Borders told Border Report on March 9.

Waiting migrants are often cut off from all hometown family, legal or social supports. They don't always have viable options for stable shelter, food, money, medical care or other social support either. Drug cartel operatives can recruit or kidnap migrants, holding them for ransom and murdering them if their families don't comply with their financial or criminal demands.