(Washington) The United States Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will consider the Biden administration’s request to end a controversial immigration measure by Donald Trump to send asylum seekers back to Mexico during the examination of their file.
Posted yesterday at 10:30 p.m.
The government of the Democratic president seized the high court, with a conservative majority, at the end of December to examine the decision of an appeals court which ordered the maintenance of the program called “Remain in Mexico”, implemented in 2019 by the previous administration.
Upon arriving at the White House in January 2021, Joe Biden began dismantling the controversial measure — officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) — but a Texas court required its reinstatement in August.
The United States therefore had to partially reactivate it, in agreement with Mexico, while contesting the Texas decision before a federal appeals court, without winning.
The Supreme Court is due to consider this case in April, according to court documents seen by AFP. A decision is expected in the summer.
The PPM program does not apply to Mexicans but forces asylum seekers who arrived in the United States via Mexico to stay there while their request is processed. He is widely criticized by civil rights associations.
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 exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the American Immigration Council organization.
The left wing of the Democratic Party expected Joe Biden to make a 180 degree turn on immigration, after four years as a Republican under Trump devoted to locking down the borders of the United States.
Migration flows, which fell sharply at the start of the pandemic, had started to increase again even before Joe Biden took office but clearly jumped afterwards.
More than two million migrants who entered the United States illegally via Mexico were arrested in 2021, according to official statistics. A record level.