The Biden Administration asked the Supreme Court Wednesday to decide whether the Department of Homeland Security should maintain a Trump-era policy known as “Stay in Mexico,” which President Joe Biden is trying to eliminate.
The administration has asked judges in a court filing to decide whether Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is required to implement a directive issued under the Trump administration that forces thousands of asylum seekers to wait at the Mexico until their court dates in the United States. A federal appeals court has twice thwarted attempts by the Biden administration to end the policy.
The administration said this month it would revive the policy after losing previous court battles.
Biden suspended the policy on his first day in office, pending a review, and Mayorkas announced in June that the administration was officially ending it. Texas and Missouri sued, and a federal judge ruled the policy should be reinstated. In August, the Supreme Court denied the Biden administration’s request to suspend implementation of the policy.
Mayorkas reissued a memo to end the program in October, but a federal appeals court this month rejected the new attempt.
“DHS is falling far short of its heavy burden of showing that it can legislate in a vacuum,” the appeals court wrote in a 117-page opinion.
The Trump administration created the policy, officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols, in 2019. Critics say it denies people the right to seek protection in the United States and forces them to wait in dangerous Mexican border towns with higher rates of robberies, kidnappings and assaults. .
