The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Monday to cancel the upcoming oral argument on two critical immigration cases involving former President Trump’s border wall and the “Remain in Mexico” policy that helped solve the 2019 border surge.
President Biden has ordered a pause on wall construction and has called for an unwinding of the Mexico policy, and the Justice Department told the high court that has changed the facts of the two cases, so they should be put on hold.
The wall case was due for oral argument at the end of this month, and the Mexico policy case was to be heard March 1.
In both cases, the plaintiffs who’d sued the Trump administration agree to the postponement, the Justice Department said.
The wall case was supposed to decide whether Mr. Trump’s decision to siphon billions of dollars in Pentagon money toward the wall was legal. Opponents had suggested that if the administration lost the case, they would seek to have the portions built with that money be torn down.
The Remain in Mexico policy, officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, allowed border agents and officers who encountered illegal immigrants immediately back across the border into Mexico while they waited for their immigration proceedings, such as asylum claims, in the U.S.
Migrants had figured out that they could lodge bogus asylum claims and gain a foothold in the U.S. while waiting the months or sometimes years it took to hear their cases. That realization helped fuel the 2019 border surge, which saw the highest levels of illegal immigration in nearly 15 years.
The Remain in Mexico policy erased that incentive.
But immigration activists said it violated U.S. law and left valid asylum-seekers vulnerable to abuse in Mexico.