Illegal Honduran migrants on a road in Guatemala, Jan. 16, 2021. They want to travel to the United States.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday morning (Feb. 3) granted the Biden administration’s request to cancel oral arguments in two cases. The upcoming arguments in the cases involve two lawsuits filed against former President Trump‘s signature immigration policy.
The cases are currently on hold pending arguments on a settlement. The lawsuits involve Trump’s measure to build a wall along the U.S. southern border to stop illegal alien smuggling across the border and his policy requiring asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while he awaits a ruling. Trump’s presidency ended on Jan. 20.
Since taking office, President Joe Biden has shifted the priorities of his administration, abandoning the immigration enforcement efforts that were the focus of the previous administration.
Hours after taking office, Biden immediately signed Presidential Proclamation 10142, declaring that “building a giant wall across the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution” and calling the project “a waste of money and a distraction from the real threats to our homeland security. It says the project is “a waste of money and a distraction from the real threats to our homeland security.
The document revokes Presidential Proclamation 9844, signed by Trump on Feb. 15, 2019, which invoked the National Emergencies Act to declare a national emergency on the U.S. southern border. Trump ordered that $2.5 billion in military counter-drug funds be redirected to a wall construction project along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Attempts by members of Congress to overturn Trump’s emergency declaration at the Time failed, only to leave the government unable to secure funding in time, leading to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, from Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019.
Biden’s new statement stipulates that the funds will no longer be used to build a border wall.
The case on the border wall, previously labeled Trump v. Sierra Club, is now Biden v. Sierra Club.
Another case, Mayorkas v. Innovation Law Lab, involves a legal challenge to the Trump Administration‘s “Remain in Mexico” program. The program requires non-Mexican asylum seekers present at the southern border to wait for their U.S. asylum claims to be adjudicated in Mexico. Prior to this appeal, the case was named Wolf v. Innovation Law Lab.
In December 2018, then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen unveiled the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Migrant Protection protocols (MPPs). Under Trump’s leadership, these protocols were implemented to curb the so-called catch-and-release system for illegal immigrants. Under the previous system, illegal border crossers often filed fraudulent asylum claims, knowing that they would be allowed to enter the United States for a long time, even years, regardless of the verdict.
But under Biden’s leadership, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued a new memo stating that as of Jan. 21, “the department will suspend registration under the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) pending further review of the MPP.” Aliens not registered under the Border Protection Program shall be processed by other existing legal authorities.”
On Feb. 2, Biden signed three new presidential orders on immigration aimed at overturning Trump-era immigration policies.
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