A Texas federal judge ordered the Biden administration last week to reinstate President Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, also known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), in order to regain some control of the massive border surge where one million migrants are expected to have crossed into the United States.
“Defendants are ORDERED to enforce and implement MPP in good faith until such a time as it has been lawfully rescinded in compliance with the APA and until such a time as the federal government has sufficient detention capacity to detain all aliens subject to mandatory detention under Section 1255 without releasing any aliens because of a lack of detention resources,” Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk wrote in the 53-page ruling on Friday.
Judge Kacsmaryk noted that the Biden administration “failed to consider several critical factors,” including how asylum seekers “without meritorious claims” were returning home voluntarily, before ending the Trump-era program.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who partnered with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on the lawsuit, took to Twitter to celebrate the win.
“Huge win for border security & rule of law,” said Schmitt following the ruling.
MPP was established by the Trump administration in 2019 as a way to confront the surge in illegal immigration. Under this program, the United States partnered with Mexico to send asylum seekers back to Mexico to await their court dates, according to The Epoch Times.
The outlet reported Kirstjen Nielsen, who was secretary of Homeland Security under the Trump administration, stated the program was a response to “a security and humanitarian crisis on the Southern border.”
“MPP will help restore a safe and orderly immigration process, decrease the number of those taking advantage of the immigration system, and the ability of smugglers and traffickers to prey on vulnerable populations, and reduce threats to life, national security, and public safety, while ensuring that vulnerable populations receive the protections they need,” Nielsen said when the policy was created.
Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas formally ended the MPP program on June 1, 2021, adding it to the list of Trump policies the administration has been rescinded.
The judge’s ruling comes soon after the Department of Homeland Security released July immigration statistics showing it was the worst month ever recorded as Customs and Border Protection apprehended 212,672 illegal aliens, according to The Daily Wire. Border Patrol officials have predicted that about two million illegal immigrants will have crossed the southern border, if this pace continues, by the end of 2021.