A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Obiden Regime from ending a Trump-era policy requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court.
This from westernjournal.com.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas stayed the termination until legal challenges by Texas and Missouri are settled but didn’t order the “Remain in Mexico” policy reinstated.
The impact on the program wasn’t immediately clear.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted after the ruling:
It’s a common sense policy to prevent people from entering our country illegally. Texas wins again, for now.
Texas court compels Biden to continue enforcing the remain in Mexico policy.
It’s a common sense policy to prevent people from entering our country illegally.
Texas wins again, for now. https://t.co/MJEOIw1mzw
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) December 16, 2022
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also weighed in on the ruling.
Paxton tweeted:
I sued Biden nearly 2 yrs. ago to keep Remain-in-Mexico. The Admin played games all the way to SCOTUS, but tonight Texas & USA WINS.
He said:
I just secured an order from a federal court ordering Biden not to scrap the program. Biden’s open-border agenda won’t survive my legal attacks.
I sued Biden nearly 2 yrs. ago to keep Remain-in-Mexico. The Admin played games all the way to SCOTUS, but tonight Texas & USA WINS.
I just secured an order from a federal court ordering Biden not to scrap the program.
Biden’s open-border agenda won’t survive my legal attacks.
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) December 16, 2022
The decision comes as El Paso, Texas, and other border cities face a daily influx of migrants that could grow larger if separate asylum restrictions enacted under President Trump end next week as scheduled.
Thursday’s ruling could prove to be a temporary setback for the [Obiden Regime] which may appeal.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it disagreed with the ruling and was considering its next steps. It claimed the government was well within its authority to end the policy.
Under Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocols, introduced in January 2019, about 70,000 asylum-seekers were forced to wait in Mexico for U.S. hearings.
That sparked a long and tortured legal and administrative path.
Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee in Amarillo, ordered that the policy be reinstated in 2021. The Obiden Regime complied with the order after agreeing to changes and additions demanded by Mexico.
But it didn’t enforce the policy widely, and only a few thousand people were sent back to wait in Mexico.
In his 35-page ruling, the judge said it was likely an October 2021 memo that was the administration’s latest effort to nail down termination of the policy did indeed appear to violate the law.
The ruling said:
Among other things, [The Regime] failed to consider the benefits of the policy, including reducing illegal immigration and ‘unmeritorious asylum claims.’
