WASHINGTON (CNS): On his first day in office, US president, Joe Biden, suspended the 2019 Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, put in place by former president Donald Trump in an effort to curb the influx of those arriving at the southern border of the United States seeking asylum.
Biden formally sought to end the programme months later, but lower courts ordered that the policy be reinstated in response to a lawsuit from Republican-led Texas and Missouri.
In a 5-4 decision in Biden v. Texas, the Supreme Court said the lower court’s decision about the immigration policy “imposed a significant burden upon the executive’s ability to conduct diplomatic relations with Mexico,” particularly since the United States cannot send migrants from Central America to Mexico without negotiating these actions with Mexican officials.
A joint statement issued by Auxiliary Bishop Mario Dorsonville of Washington, who is chairperson Committee on Migration of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops; Dominican Sister Donna Markham, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, and Anna Gallagher, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network and Catholic Charities USA, said the Supreme Court’s decision “recognises and preserves the executive branch’s ability to reverse untenable, illegal and immoral policies, regardless of who is in office.”
From January 2019, when the Trump administration started the programme, to the end of 2020, nearly 70,000 migrants were sent back to Mexico to wait for their court hearings, according to the American Immigration Council
They also said the asylum policy “obstructed due process and subjected people to the very dangers that forced them to seek refuge in the United States in the first place. With this ruling, we welcome the end of MPP.”
They also noted the court’s ruling does not “resolve the ongoing challenges at our country’s southwest border,” but they said it helps “pave the way forward.”
From January 2019, when the Trump administration started the programme, to the end of 2020, nearly 70,000 migrants were sent back to Mexico to wait for their court hearings, according to the American Immigration Council.
Joan Rosenhauer, executive director of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, noted that asylum-seekers forced to wait in Mexico were often in dangerous and uncertain circumstances with limited access to housing, education, work opportunities and legal counsel.
“Our staff on the border hear stories every day of families with children who escaped horrific circumstances,” she said, adding that she is pleased that those who have waited for so long will now be able to make their asylum claims and seek protection in the US.
“We will continue to work with these families to ensure that their needs are met,” she said, urging the Biden administration “to take all necessary steps to quickly end MPP and establish an effective and efficient asylum process.
