The Supreme Court has ruled that the Biden administration may end a Trump-era border policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or "Remain in Mexico." Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, which was joined by Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Stephen Breyer.
Announced by President Donald Trump in 2018 and implemented in 2019, Remain in Mexico required asylum seekers to await their immigration court dates in Mexico. This policy subverted a longstanding practice of generally allowing asylum seekers to stay in the U.S. either in detention or on release while their legal proceedings took place. Under Trump's policy, once migrants arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border to request asylum, they received court dates and were returned to Mexico. There, they often waited in tent cities that sprang up in dangerous border towns. Under Trump, roughly 70,000 people were returned to Mexico; the Biden administration has sent at least 4,300 migrants to Mexico under the program.
