The Supreme Court said on Wednesday that Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, can continue while legal challenges play out in lower courts. The stay reverses a previous decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to block MPP in California and Arizona, and Justice Sonya Sotomayor was the only dissenter,
The court battle over MPP began in January 2019, when several legal aid and human rights organizations sued the federal government and asked for an injunction. That was granted, but a stay was placed on it by the end of the summer. By mid-October, MPP had been rolled out along the Texas-Mexico border.
This February, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said that the policy of making asylum-seekers wait in Mexico violated federal laws and international refugee treaties. They placed an injunction on the policy again, but halted their own ruling a few hours later when the Trump administration requested an emergency stay until the Supreme Court could weigh in.
