Angered activists storm out of meeting with Biden administration: 'Reached a turning point'



Immigration activists stormed out of a meeting with top Biden administration officials on Saturday, apparently upset that President Joe Biden is breaking yet another campaign promise.

What is the background?

During his campaign, Biden promised to end former President Donald Trump's "remain in Mexico policy," which is officially known as Migrant Protection Protocols. Trump created the policy to end so-called "catch-and-release," where migrants seeking asylum in America are released into the U.S. while their case progresses through the immigration court system.

Biden initially made good on his promise. On his first day in office, Biden suspended the policy. The Biden administration formally ended the policy this summer.

However, the Supreme Court ruled in August that Biden needed to reinstate the policy. The administration announced Friday they would reinstate the policy to comply with federal court rulings.

What happened now?

Immigration activist met virtually with top members of the Biden administration on Saturday, including Homeland Security officials and the White House Domestic Policy Council's Esther Olavarria, Politico reported.

At some point, "dozens" of activists stormed out of the meeting, angry over Biden's broken promises. The activist were reportedly upset that Biden will enforce the "remain in Mexico" policy.

Before leaving the meeting, the activist accused Biden of "playing politics with human lives." The activists reportedly said, "We have sadly reached a turning point."

"I cannot stand one more meeting of them pretending," Ariana Saludares, who attended the meeting, told Politico. "They give us accolades on the outside, but on the inside, we're having to take out the metaphoric knives from our back."

"It's almost like we were bamboozled into thinking that this was going to be the best option, and it isn't. It's actually worse," she added. "It is as if you know that your family is now turning against you and telling you that it's okay. It's not."

Luis Guerra, who also left the meeting, said, "We don't actually believe they're doing everything in their power to actually restore asylum at the border, the way that they say that they're trying to."

How did the Biden admin respond?

The White House attempted to sooth tensions with activists by reaffirming the Biden administration's disagreement with MPP.

"The Biden Administration has been very clear that MPP is not an immigration policy we agree with or support. That's why the Department of Homeland Security immediately appealed the court injunction once it was ordered," a White House official told Politico.

"We are incredibly thankful and appreciative of the work immigration advocates and organizations do around the clock to improve our immigration system," the official added.

Biden to temporarily reinstate 'remain in Mexico' policy per judge's orders



A little over four months after President Joe Biden officially ended his predecessor's "remain in Mexico" policy, his administration is set to put the controversial policy back into effect after a federal judge said Biden's termination of the program violated the law.

Administration officials told the press Friday that Migrant Protection Protocols — a policy requiring migrant asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their U.S. court hearings — will be temporarily reinstated in mid-November as the administration prepares another attempt to end the program.

Former Republican President Donald Trump implemented the MPP policy in 2019 as a means of ensuring that migrants who traveled to the southern border claiming to seek asylum did not enter the country illegally and then disappear before their court hearings. An estimated 68,000 migrants were returned to Mexico under Trump's policy, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Biden, a Democrat, campaigned against MPP, claiming it was inhumane. Shortly after he took office in January, Biden paused the program as part of a wider effort to reverse many of Trump's immigration policies.

In April, Missouri and Texas sued the Biden administration, arguing that pausing MPP led to a surge of illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border that inflicted costs on the states. The Department of Homeland Security attempted to officially rescind the policy in June, when DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said it did not "adequately or sustainably enhance border management."

Then in August, a federal judge blocked the Biden administration from enacting its plan to end the "remain in Mexico" policy. The Biden administration appealed its case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to take it up in a 6-3 decision, leaving the lower court's ruling in effect.

Now, according to Reuters, the Biden administration is in the tricky position of having to restart the "remain in Mexico" program while also trying to end it:

The administration has said it will comply with Kacsmaryk's ruling "in good faith" while continuing its appeal in the case. The administration also plans to issue a fresh memo to terminate the program in the hopes it will resolve any legal concerns surrounding the previous one, officials said.

"Re-implementation is not something that the administration has wanted to do," a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in a call with reporters. "But in the interim we are under this obligation of the court."

In a court filing late on Thursday the administration said that "although MPP is not yet operational," they are taking all the steps necessary to re-implement it by next month.

Those steps include preparing courts, some housed in tents, near the border where asylum hearings could be held. The administration said in the filing that these facilities will take about 30 days to build, costing approximately $14.1 million to erect and $10.5 million per month to operate.

The Biden administration is communicating with Mexico on how to reinstate the policy. Mexico's foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday that it has a "number of concerns" over MPP, including due process for migrants, legal certainty, access to legal aid, and the safety of migrants.

The DHS added in a statement that Mexico must agree to accept the return of asylum seekers into its custody in order to implement MPP.

"Significantly, Mexico is a sovereign nation that must make an independent decision to accept the return of individuals without status in Mexico as part of any reimplementation of MPP. Discussions with the Government of Mexico concerning when and how MPP will be reimplemented are ongoing," the DHS said.

Against campaign promise, Biden considers watered-down version of Trump-era 'remain in Mexico' policy



Backed into a corner by the Supreme Court, President Joe Biden is reportedly considering enacting a "lite" version of the Trump-era "remain in Mexico" immigration policy.

What is the background?

Former President Donald Trump enacted an immigration policy that forced most asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while American immigration courts ruled on their claims. The policy, also known as Migrant Protection Protocols, sought to eliminate so-called "catch and release," whereupon migrants are released into the U.S. general public, potentially slipping into the shadows of society, while their case progresses through the immigration court system.

The policy, which proved effective, was overturned by Biden, who campaigned on a promise to end the policy. After announcing a suspension of the policy on his first day in office, the Biden administration formally ended the policy this summer.

The Supreme Court last month upheld a lower court ruling that ordered the Biden administration to reinstate the policy "in good faith until such a time as it has been lawfully rescinded in compliance with the [Administrative Procedure Act]." That federal judge also said Biden "failed to consider several critical factors, including the benefits of the remain in Mexico policy" when canceling the policy.

The Department of Homeland Security said it would "comply with the order in good faith," but said the agency would still seek an appeal.

What is happening now?

To comply with the court's order, the Biden administration is considering a watered-down version of the "remain in Mexico" policy, although it's not clear how a "lite" version would carry out the policy "in good faith" as ordered.

Politico reported:

The new proposal — what some have dubbed "Remain in Mexico lite" — would require a small number of asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their cases to be processed but give them better living conditions and access to attorneys, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

The administration is starting talks with Mexico in a bid to strike a balance between abiding by a federal court order and making good on the president's campaign promises. A federal judge ruled last month that President Joe Biden's attempt to end the program — a pledge he made on the campaign trail — violated the law.

Immigration advocates, however, are demanding Biden ignore the Supreme Court, much like his administration did with the eviction moratorium.

Michael Tan, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, said restarting MPP, even a watered-down version of the program, is "completely unacceptable."

"What the administration should be doing — and hopefully is already doing — is working on a new memorandum that responds to the concerns of the district judge in Texas, and terminates the program again," Tan said.

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of National Immigration Law Center, agreed.

"One of his campaign promises was to end MPP. He did that. He should stand by that," Hincapié told Politico. "The answer is not to simply find a gentler, kinder MPP 2.0. That completely flies in the face of his promise."

Federal judge hands Biden 'major loss,' orders Biden to revive Trump-era immigration policy



A federal judge ordered the Biden administration late Friday to revive a key immigration policy established by former President Donald Trump that President Joe Biden canceled.

The ruling came one day after the Department of Homeland Security announced border patrol agents encountered 212, 672 migrants in July, a 13% increase from June.

What is the background?

Upon entering office in January, Biden reversed many of Trump's deterrent immigration policies. Biden had promised to take such action, arguing Trump's policies "waged an unrelenting assault on our values and our history as a nation of immigrants."

One of the first Trump-era policies that Biden suspended was known as "Migrant Protection Protocols." The policy forced migrants seeking asylum to wait in Mexico while U.S. immigration courts settled their case.

By forcing migrants to wait in Mexico, Trump's policy essentially prevented "catch and release," where migrants claiming asylum in the U.S. would be released into the U.S. general population while immigration courts decided their fate. Many of those released would then go on to live in the shadows.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced on June 1 the official end of MPP, Bloomberg noted.

What did the judge rule?

U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk sided with the states of Texas and Missouri, which sued Biden for canceling MPP. The states argued the Biden administration's decision to cancel the program is, in part, responsible for the ongoing border crisis.

Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by Trump, ordered the Biden administration to "enforce and implement MPP in good faith until such a time as it has been lawfully rescinded in compliance with the [Administrative Procedure Act] and until such a time as the federal government has sufficient detention capacity to detain all aliens subject to mandatory detention under Section 1255 without releasing any aliens because of a lack of detention resources."

The judge concluded the Biden administration "failed to consider several critical factors, including the benefits of the remain in Mexico policy" when canceling the policy. In fact, Kacsmaryk said the Biden administration failed "to show a reasoned decision" for canceling MPP at all.

However, Kacsmaryk noted that his order does not require the Biden administration to take immediate action. "Nothing in this injunction requires DHS to take any immigration or removal action nor withhold its statutory discretion towards any individual that it would not otherwise take."

Kacsmaryk gave the Biden administration one week to seek "emergency relief at the appellate level."

What was the reaction?

The Texas Attorney General's office celebrated the decision.

"ANOTHER VICTORY! We just won our second immigration lawsuit against the Biden Admin! They unlawfully tried to shut down the legal and effective Remain-in-Mexico program, but #Texas and Missouri wouldn't have it," the Texas AG's office said on Twitter. "Together we sued, and just handed Biden yet another major loss!"

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt also praised Kacsmaryk's ruling.

"Today, in a huge win for the Missouri Attorney General's Office and in a big step towards securing the border, a federal court issued a nationwide permanent injunction, reversing the Biden Administration's suspension of the program and ordering the Biden Administration to reimplement the program," Schmitt said in a statement.