Lawyers for the Department of Justice requested that the Supreme Court examined a matter involving the “Remain in Mexico” program.
Many asylum seekers are forced to stay in Mexico while their applications are being heard.
The Biden administration terminated it, but a judge ordered it to be restarted over the summer. According to the judge, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas failed to weigh the program’s positives, which included discouraging some would-be illegal immigrants from entering the country.
Mayorkas issued a new memorandum in October, trying to end the program one more time. The appeals court supported the judge’s ruling, stating the memorandum had no effect on the ongoing case.
In a brief to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Biden administration lawyers claimed that the decision was issued in error. The administration wants the nation’s highest court to hear both sides’ arguments and make a decision.
In a 45-page writ of certiorari, they said that the court of appeals’ decision had tremendous legal and practical repercussions, and there were strong grounds for the court to examine it.
One of the arguments is that the lower courts dictated the exercise of the executive’s statutory discretion in a wrong way.
On Dec. 2, after months of negotiations, the two countries struck an agreement to restart the program.
In case the Supreme Court does not intervene, the policy will remain in effect unless Mexican officials cease cooperating or Congress approves money to imprison all the illegal immigrants who enter the U.S., according to Biden administration lawyers.