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- The Biden administration was sued for rescinding an immigration policy enacted by Trump.
- The "Remain in Mexico" policy forced asylum seekers to stay in Mexico as their cases were processed.
- The Supreme Court ruled to reinstate the policy on Tuesday.
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On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that a Trump-era immigration policy – in which migrants must stay in Mexico as their asylum cases are being processed – should be reinstated.
President Joe Biden's administration had rescinded the policy. In April, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sued the Biden administration over the decisions. Paxton claimed that revoking the policy brought in crime and stretched resources.
"President Biden could immediately remedy the influx of crime pouring across our border by reinstating the Migrant Protection Protocols," Paxton said in a statement. "Dangerous criminals are taking advantage of the lapse in law enforcement and it's resulting in human trafficking, smuggling, a plethora of violent crimes, and a massive, unprecedented burden on state and federal programs for which taxpayers must foot the bill."
Earlier this month, Texas Federal Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk ordered Biden to reinstate the policy. He said federal law did not allow the government to take in asylum seekers if they didn't have the resources to detain them.
The Remain in Mexico policy was put into effect at the beginning of 2019 by the Department of Homeland Security under Trump and required asylum-seekers who passed through Mexico on their way to the US to file their cases and remain in Mexico.
In a 6-3 ruling, the court's conservative judges said the move to rescind the program was "arbitrary and capricious."
The order said Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan would have granted rescinding the program.
In December 2020, Human Rights First, a non-profit organization, found that since February 2019, more than 1,300 people were raped, kidnapped, or harmed in other ways while waiting for their cases to be processed in Mexico.
"Continuing to turn away and expel people seeking US refugee protection at the southern border is both a humanitarian disgrace and a legal travesty," Kennji Kizuka, a researcher at HRF said.