Why Is the “Stay in Mexico” a Good Policy?

             There is hope for America! The United States Supreme Court ruled today that the Biden administration must reinstate former President Donald Trump’s immigration measure known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, or the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). As usual, the vote fell along ideological lines.

            The case began when the attorney generals from Texas and Missouri filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement of the policy. According to Dom Calicchio at Fox News, the attorney generals argued that the move by the Biden administration to end the policy violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). On August 13, a federal judge in Texas sided with the attorney generals. 

            John Kruzel at The Hill reported that “Texas-based U.S. District Judge Matthew KacsmaryK, a Trump appointee, ruled that the Biden administration had failed to provide a legally adequate rationale for its rescission and ordered that the policy would have to remain in place until the administration undergoes a lengthy administrative procedure to overturn it.” 

            The case then went to U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Court where a three-judge panel let the ruling stand. Last Friday, the Biden administration made an emergency request for the justices at the Supreme Court to review the lawsuit. Justice Samuel Alito handles any emergency requests from Texas, and he issued a temporary block on the lower court’s order to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy. The stay was to remain in effect until Tuesday night (tonight) to give the Supreme Court justices an opportunity to review the case.

            The Supreme Court ruled this evening on a 6-3 vote to reject the request for a stay on the order by the Biden administration. According to Kruzel, “Alito wrote that the administration had failed to show it was likely to ultimately prevail in defending the lawfulness of its decision to rescind” the Trump policy. This means that the Biden administration must reinstate “Stay in Mexico.”

            “Stay in Mexico” is a policy implemented by the Trump administration in 2019, “blocked migrants at the Mexican border from entering the U.S. to apply for asylum.” The Biden administration estimates that there are currently 25,000 people waiting in Mexico to know if they can enter the United States. There were more than 60,000 asylum-seekers who were sent back to Mexico. This policy ended the “catch-and-release” policy put in place by previous presidents.

            Biden sought to end the “Stay in Mexico” policy by signing an executive order during his first week in office. Since that time more than one million people have entered the United States illegally and allowed to move into the interior of the nation. There are no records about who the one million undocumented migrants are or where they went, and they were put on their honor to report to immigration officials in their new area.

            If the “Stay in Mexico” policy had remained in effect, fewer people would have come to the border because no one wants to sit in Mexico. They came only because they knew that they would be allowed into the United States. We know this because that was the result when the policy was put in place.

The Biden administration opened the border to whoever wanted to come to the United States. They sought to change the demographics of America. In doing so, they might have overwhelmed the system. It is good that the “Stay in Mexico” policy will be reinstated because it will stop the hordes of people coming to our border. It will decrease the streams of illegal immigrants to numbers that Border Patrol can manage.