Remain in Mexico at SCOTUS, Round Two
The Biden administration is bringing Remain in Mexico (also known as “RMX,” “Migrant Protection Protocols,” or “MPP”) back to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has indicated that they are taking the government’s request seriously: last week, the Supreme Court denied Texas’s request for more time to file a brief on the matter. The court may discuss whether to take the case at any time.
What does this mean? The Supreme Court already ruled against the Biden administration on the preliminary injunction, allowing an appellate court ruling that the Biden administration must take “good faith” steps toward reinstating Remain in Mexico. This latest Supreme Court battle could represent the final say in Texas v. Biden, and the potential consequences of a Supreme Court decision are big. FWD.us’s Todd Schulte encapsulates the stakes here.
The Supreme Court decides the pace of this case, but the Biden administration has asked for consideration of this case during this term, which means the court would hear oral argument in the spring and render a decision on the case by the end of the term in or about late June.
We are watching this case closely and will alert all of you when we hear news from the Supreme Court.
New Red State Lawsuit Targets the Central American Minors (CAM) Program
Last Friday, Texas (and seven other states) filed suit seeking a court order ending the Central American Minors (CAM) program. Through CAM, certain nationals of the Northern Triangle countries (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) who are lawfully in the United States can request, on a case-by-case basis, to be reunited here with their children who remain back in their home countries. CAM was created in 2014 and is intended to provide a safe pathway for family reunification, as an alternative to the dangerous overland journey to the U.S.’s southern border that so many children otherwise take. The Trump administration attempted to end CAM in 2017 but was found by a court to have done so unlawfully; now, Texas is asking a different court (in Texas, of course) to terminate the program. We will be following this case closely.
It’s Not All Anti-Immigrant Attacks…
The Biden administration has been on the defensive with anti-immigrant states, but they have made their own anti-immigrant moves in the court. Last Friday, we, along with co-counsel American Immigration Lawyers Association and Innovation Law Lab, were notified that the Biden administration would appeal our win in Gomez v. Biden, where a court had ordered that more than 9,000 visas be reserved for Diversity Visa lottery winners who were harmed by Trump’s immigration ban. This is a disheartening, unnecessary, and puzzling move from the Biden administration, and we will continue to fight on behalf our plaintiffs and class members. You can read Karen Tumlin’s take on this development, as well as JAC’s, here.
Thanks, as always, for reading! We’d like to close by sending a huge and heartfelt thanks to Daniel Tully, who completed his fellowship with Justice Action Center on Friday. He was instrumental in creating this litigation tracker and we will miss him dearly!
In Solidarity,
Tasha
