For Immediate Release
June 30, 2022
Contact: Sarai Herrera
213-634-0999; sherrera@immdef.org
LOS ANGELES: The Supreme Court of the United States released its decision today on Biden v Texas, affirming President Biden’s power to finally end the cruel Remain in Mexico Program known formally as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). Since Trump enacted this policy in 2019, over 70,000 people have been denied meaningful access to asylum at the border and forced into dangerous living conditions where they have been kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered. Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) welcomes this decision, one that will enable President Biden to fulfill his campaign promise to end this harmful program. Ending MPP cannot undo the harm done over the last three years, but it is a crucial step forward on the long road to restoring humanity to our asylum system.
Thousands perished on their journey to safety, as we saw in San Antonio this week, and many have been forced to make life-threatening decisions because our asylum system has been dismantled. Biden must use his power to immediately end further suffering of Black migrants and indigenous, LGBTQIA+, pregnant women, young children, and medically vulnerable asylum seekers.
ImmDef urges the Biden administration and the courts to move immediately to end all other deterrence-based policies, including Title 42. The optimal solution is humane asylum processing at the border, not more policies that result in the harm or death of thousands of human beings seeking safety at our borders.
.
Managing Attorney of ImmDef’s Cross-Border Initiative, Margaret Cargioli, shared, “The Remain in Mexico policy is a human rights nightmare for all involved. The Remain in Mexico policy must not only end, but we must also ensure it is never revived. It is a deadly program that must be buried in history. Treating asylum seekers with dignity is a matter of life and death. Inhumanity has no place in immigration policy.”
In response to today’s decision, Alvaro M. Huerta, ImmDef’s Director of Litigation & Advocacy, stated, “The Supreme Court affirmed that the Administration has a choice in how it decides to implement its immigration policies. It can and should wind down the MPP policy immediately. The Administration must also make every effort to end the draconian Title 42 policy, which has kept thousands of asylum seekers from seeking safety in the United States and put our international human rights obligations on pause.”
Lindsay Toczylowski, Executive Director of Immigrant Defenders Law Center states, “SCOTUS has handed the Biden administration the ability to make good on their campaign promise to finally end the cruel and deadly Remain in Mexico policy. As I read the decision, memories of thousands of people in Mexico forced to live in camps and shelters and suffer immensely came to mind. This decision can be the beginning of the end of the horrors we have seen at the border. Biden must immediately take the opportunity to end all failed deterrence-based policies, including Title 42, which put the lives of asylum seekers in danger. The administration has been given the power to do better, and now it's time to act on that.”
###
Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) is a next-generation social justice law firm that defends our immigrant communities against injustices in the legal system. We envision a future where no immigrant will be forced to face an unjust immigration court alone. Our programs are a first step towards the long-term goal of providing universal representation to all immigrants facing deportation. ImmDef is now the largest non‐profit, pro bono provider of deportation defense in California with offices in Los Angeles, Adelanto, Riverside, Santa Ana, and San Diego.