After a series of legal battles, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcement last week that he had ended the Trump-era border policy “Stay in Mexico”, which required all asylum seekers (even non-Mexicans) to remain in Mexico pending their hearings in US immigration court. Despite suspend the police on his first day in office in January 2021, President Biden faced countless hurdles to fulfill a campaign promise and officially have the controversial policy overturned.
Shortly after the suspension of “Stay in Mexico”, the state governments of Texas and Missouri continued to keep the policy in place. In August 2021, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas ordered the policy to remain active, ruling that the US government was required to send asylum seekers back to Mexico, even if the people in question were not Mexican citizens. . The Biden administration then turned to the U.S. Supreme Court to ask that the decision to keep the policy be overturned.
“Stay in Mexico” has come under heavy criticism since the former Trump administration introduced it as a border enforcement tactic in January 2019. Nearly 70,000 migrants have been affected by the policy, many of whom have been exposed to inhumane conditions and violence in the United States-Mexico. border. In their official statement, The DHS said the program would be disbanded “in a speedy and orderly manner” and that in future asylum seekers would not be returned to Mexico after appearing in the United States for their hearings.
