Court Allows Remain in Mexico Policy to Continue

Gabe Ortiz, Daily Kos

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration can continue enforcing its inhumane Remain in Mexico policy as litigation continues. The policy, which has forced up to 62,000 asylum-seekers to wait for their U.S. immigration court cases in Mexico, many of them in dangerous conditions, had been blocked by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last month.

[ the Court ruled that the policy could remain in place while appeals continue }

“The Court of Appeals unequivocally declared this policy to be illegal,” Judy Rabinovitz of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project said in a statement. “The Supreme Court should as well. Asylum seekers face grave danger and irreversible harm every day this depraved policy remains in effect.” 

The Trump administration has increasingly run to the Supreme Court following unfavorable court decisions against its anti-immigrant policies. “In the past year, the justices let the administration deter poor immigrants, deny asylum seekers and redirect military funds to build a wall along the southern border,” USA Today reportedlast month.

The court is also expected to issue soon a decision on the administration’s termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, with a ruling in the impeached president’s favor standing to result in upheaval for hundreds of thousands of families across the U.S. During a recent Senate hearing, California Sen. Kamala Harris grilled acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on federal immigration officials’ plans for after a court decision, getting him to commit to handing over that information.

”Any day now, the Supreme Court will issue a ruling in the DACA case,” Harris later tweeted. “Our DREAMers deserve to know whether this administration is planning to deport them from the only home they’ve ever known.”