SCOTUS to Hear Most Significant Immigration Case — Ever
Does the president have the power to ignore the law? We may soon find out.
By Andrew R. Arthur on February 23, 2022
The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Biden v. Texas, which involves the administration’s termination of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), better known as “Remain in Mexico”. It is no exaggeration to state that this is the most significant immigration case ever because the Court will be considering whether there are any limits on the administration’s authority to ignore explicit congressional mandates in allowing foreign nationals to enter and remain in the United States.
“Remain in Mexico”. MPP was implemented by then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in January 2019 and allows DHS to return “other than Mexican” migrants (OTMs) caught entering illegally or without proper documents back to Mexico to await their removal hearings.
Under the Trump administration, nearly 70,000 OTMs were returned back across the border. When their hearing dates arrived, MPP enrollees were paroled into the United States to appear before immigration judges at “tent courts” at the ports of entry. If they were granted asylum, they were allowed into the United States; if asylum was denied, they were removed.
In its October 2019 assessment of the program, DHS determined that MPP was “an indispensable tool in addressing the ongoing crisis at the southern border and restoring integrity to the immigration system”, particularly as related to alien families. Asylum cases were expedited under the program, while at the same time, MPP removed incentives for aliens to make weak or bogus claims when apprehended.
https://cis.org/Arthur/SCOTUS-Hear-Most-Significant-Immigration-Case-Ever
