Asylum stay policy is upheld
NEW ORLEANS – A federal appeals court has dealt another blow to the Biden administration’s attempt to undo former President Donald Trump’s policy requiring people seeking asylum in the United States to remain in Mexico while their asylum claims are being processed.
In a Monday night ruling, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld a Texas-based federal judge’s decision maintaining Trump’s policy, formally known as the “Migrant Protection Protocols.”
President Joe Biden’s administration had appealed the August decision but also began working with Mexico to reimplement the policy while the legal battle continued.
Monday’s ruling by three 5th Circuit judges said the administration’s move to end the policy was arbitrary and violated a federal immigration statute requiring detention of those in the country illegally pending removal proceedings. If there is no capacity to detain them, Judge Andrew Oldham wrote for the panel, the statute allows the Department of Homeland Security to return them to “contiguous territories” while proceedings are pending.
Biden suspended the program on his first day in office in January, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas formally ended it in June. But Missouri and Texas sued to reinstate it. Texas-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued an injunction keeping the policy in play, saying the administration failed to follow required procedures for ending it and did not have capacity to detain all asylum-seekers.