Judge orders Trump policy to be reinstated
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration plans to challenge a federal judge’s ruling that the government reinstate a controversial Trump administration program that required asylumseekers to wait in Mexico for decisions in their U.S. immigration cases.
The government filed notice Monday that it would appeal the ruling to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, the appeals court that covers Texas, where the federal judge ruled against the administration on Friday. The judge paused the effect of his ruling for seven days to give the federal government a chance to appeal.
In an opinion in a case brought by Texas and Missouri, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas found that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas hadn’t offered sufficient rationale to end the “Remain in Mexico” program in violation of administrative law.
The judge, a Trump appointee, ordered the administration to implement the policy until it can rescind it in accordance with administrative law, and until the government has enough capacity to detain migrants crossing the border without authorization “without releasing any aliens because of a lack of detention resources.”
The judge’s ruling “would force the government to return to an illegal policy that places asylum seekers in danger and deprives them of their rights to protection under both domestic and international law,” said Judy Rabinovitz of the American Civil Liberties Union, the lead attorney in litigation challenging the immigration program during the Trump administration.
She said the Biden administration “properly exercised its authority to end the policy.”
Kacsmaryk said Mayorkas “failed to consider several of the main benefits” of the Trump immigration policy. The policy has been panned by humanitarian advocates, but the judge noted the program had deterred migrants from seeking asylum.
Mayorkas also didn’t heed the warnings of former Trump administration officials who said rescinding the policy would spur increased migration to the border.
Migration levels have increased in recent months, and border agents logged more than 210,000 encounters with migrants in the month of July, according to the latest data by Customs and Border Protection.
The court ruling delivered a victory to Texas and Missouri, two Republican-led states that sued the Biden administration in April challenging its decision to suspend the program. The states claimed that the Biden policy had encouraged more migrants to journey to the U.S., and as a result, imposed more health care, education and other costs on the states receiving them.
In a statement Friday night, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said the judge’s ruling “will help secure the border and fight the scourge of human trafficking.”