Texas and Missouri filed suit against the Biden administration on Tuesday, claiming injury resulting from President Joe Biden’s revocation of the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols, commonly known as the “remain in Mexico” policy.
The two Republican-led states asked a federal court to declare the Biden administration’s decision to end MPP, a program instituted in 2019 to keep asylum-seekers in Mexico as they awaited hearings to assess their claims, as “unlawful” and to prevent the administration from enforcing it.
“The effects of unlawful immigration do not stop at the southern border,” Texas and Missouri say in the lawsuit.
Their complaint cites the “additional costs of housing, educating, and providing healthcare and other social services for trafficking victims or illegal aliens” among the sources of “irreparable injury” for Texas.
It also puts forward that surges in illegal immigration will make it more difficult to fight against human trafficking in Missouri.
“The Biden Administration’s unlawful suspension of the MPP will require Missouri to increase funding for its Human Trafficking Task Force, which will have to expend substantially more resources in order to combat a substantial increase in human trafficking efforts that arise out of the mass-migration surge,” the complaint reads.
The Homeland Security Department announced in February that, starting Feb. 19, thousands of migrants who had been forced to wait in Mexico for months under MPP would be allowed into the United States.
“As President Biden has made clear, the U.S. government is committed to rebuilding a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at the time. “This latest action is another step in our commitment to reform immigration policies that do not align with our nation’s values. Especially at the border, however, where capacity constraints remain serious, changes will take time.”
In their complaint, Texas and Missouri argue that Biden’s suspension of MPP was “arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedure Act, a law governing federal regulations, and that it was not deliberative enough to consider how it would affect states.
“Even had DHS considered the costs and benefits to the United States from the MPP, DHS was also obligated to consider the costs of ending the MPP to the states,” the suit says, continuing, “It transparently failed to do so, having made its decision without seeking input from Texas and Missouri and without inquiring about the costs Texas and Missouri bear from illegal immigration.”
It also argues that MPP changed the incentives for migrants who have weak asylum claims, effectuating a reduction in the flow of those seeking asylum and that its suspension has effectuated the recent surges in immigration.
“The result of this arbitrary and capricious decision has been a huge surge of Central American migrants, including thousands of unaccompanied minors, passing through Mexico in order to advance meritless asylum claims at the U.S. border,” the complaint says.
Texas and Missouri filed their suit five days after DHS released new figures showing that more than 172,000 people attempted to cross the border from Mexico illegally in the month of March, the highest single-month total in 15 years.
House Republicans introduced a bill in February seeking to revive the Migrant Protection Protocols and make them permanent.
Author : Jeremy Beaman
Source : Washington Examiner : Texas and Missouri sue Biden administration for ending ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy
