TX Federal Judge Blocks Biden Admin from Ending Trump-Era ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Biden administration from ending a Trump-era policy requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court.

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas has blocked President Joe Biden’s administration from ending the Trump-era Remain in Mexico policy.

The administration will most likely appeal the judge’s ruling arguing the policy is inhumane.

Formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocol, Remain in Mexico allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to quickly return border crossers to Mexico while they await their asylum and immigration hearings in the United States — effectively eliminating the practice commonly known as ‘Catch and Release.

Kacsmaryk’s decision on Thursday came several months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Biden administration did not violate the Immigration and Nationality Act when it sought to end the Remain in Mexico policy.

This action has a complex procedural history, having gone from this Court to the Fifth Circuit, to the Supreme Court, and back to this Court on remand,” U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk wrote in his decision. “Or ‘there and back again.’ See J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (1937).”

However, the Supreme Court left open the possibility that the district court had the power to vacate the administration’s ending of the program.

Kacsmaryk’s decision stays a Biden administration policy memo from October that attempted to terminate the Remain in Mexico policy “until the Court can resolve the merits of Plaintiffs’ claims.”