The US Department of Homeland Security announced Monday night that it will end the policy of requiring search engines to asylum wait in Mexico while their requests are resolved in court.
The announcement came after a judge lifted a court order that prevented the Joe Biden government from eliminating the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy.
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Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas overturned his ruling in response to a request from the US Department of Justice. The petition was based on the ruling issued last June by the Supreme Court, which ruled that the Biden Administration can end the policy established in 2019 by his predecessor Donald Trump.
Under that policy, adopted in 2019 by former President Donald Trump, tens of thousands of asylum seekers were sent to Mexico until they had to appear before a US court for their immigration hearing.
The program was considered cruel and dangerous, leaving vulnerable people in unsafe conditions in border towns.
The policy will be phased out “in a quick and orderly manner,” the US agency said in a statement.
No one else will be included and those who cross the border to attend their court hearings will not be returned to Mexico, the entity added.
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The Migrant Protection Protocol (PPM), as the policy is officially called, “has endemic flaws, imposes unjustified human costs and takes resources and personnel away from other priority tasks to secure our borders,” the department added.
Shortly after coming to power, Biden tried to scrap the measure as part of what he called a more humane approach to migration.
But several Republican-led states, led by Texas, sued the federal government, and a court in the capital ordered the policy reinstated.
The case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled on June 30 that Biden has the authority to end the program.
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The policy will be phased out in a quick and orderly manner
From the policy’s inception in January 2019 until its initial suspension, at least 70,000 people were sent to Mexico, according to the American Council on Immigration, a nonprofit organization founded in 1987 that advocates for immigrants.
The Trump administration argued that the policy would contain illegal immigration to the United States.
During Biden’s tenure, the authorities prevented the entry of more than 200,000 people who tried to enter illegally and were turned back, either by the PPM or by another border regulation adopted by the coronavirus pandemic.
*With information from AFP and EFE
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