The Biden administration has indicated that in mid-November it will reimplement the Migrant Protection Protocols, also referred to as the "Remain in Mexico" program, as ordered by federal courts.
The Trump administration implemented the program in 2019 to help eliminate "catch and release" policies and restore order within the nation's asylum system. Under this policy, asylum seekers are required to wait in Mexico until their court hearing date rather than be immediately released into the U.S. and told to return to the courts months or years later. Most are never seen again.
"This was an extremely effective program that deterred people from coming to the United States to make false claims for political asylum," notes Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). "So [the Biden administration] quickly did away with it. Ironically, they got caught up with the same matter as the Trump administration did when it tried to do away with DACA. They did not abide by the Administrative Procedures Act, which says you've got to go through certain things in the right order in order to change the programs."
But Mehlman thinks the Biden administration, which has now run afoul of the Administrative Procedures Act, will drag its feet regarding the Supreme Court order.
"They are compelled, once the Supreme Court has ruled, to comply, but you can certainly count on the fact that they're going to comply as slowly as they possibly can get away with," the FAIR spokesman concludes.
