The program dubbed "Stay in Mexico" sends asylum seekers back to their country while their case is reviewed. The Biden administration had repealed it, but it was reinstated following a request by a Texas court.
Joe Biden wants to end the legacy of his predecessor. After several legal setbacks, the Biden administration asked, Wednesday, December 29, the Supreme Court to intervene to put an end to the migration policy put in place by Donald Trump, which consists of returning asylum seekers to Mexico during review of their file.
The government of the Democratic president seized the high court, with a conservative majority, to examine the decision of an appeals court which ordered in December the maintenance of this program, baptized "Stay in Mexico", implemented in 2019 by the previous administration, according to court documents consulted Thursday by Agence France-Presse.
Upon arriving at the White House in January 2021, Joe Biden had set out to dismantle the controversial policy, officially called the “Migrant Protection Protocols” (PPM), but a Texas court ordered its reinstatement in August.
Humanitarian crisis
The United States thus had to partially reactivate this policy, in agreement with Mexico, while challenging the decision in a federal court of appeal, without succeeding.
This program "exposes migrants to unacceptable risks" and "undermines the efforts of the executive to manage regional immigration," said the text submitted to the Supreme Court.
Between January 2019 and December 2020, at least 70,000 asylum seekers, mostly from Central America, were returned to Mexico under this program, creating a humanitarian crisis on this side of the border, exacerbated by pandemic, according to the American Immigration Council.
The United States faces a massive influx of migrants to its southern border. Mexican authorities recorded more than 190,000 migrants this year between January and September, three times more than in 2020.