REPORT: SUPREME COURT AIMS TO IMPOSE SECOND TRUMP TERM FROM THE BENCH BY PERPETUATING DANGEROUS, INHUMANE ‘REMAIN IN MEXICO’ POLICY

Report: Supreme Court Aims to Impose Second Trump Term from the Bench By Perpetuating Dangerous, Inhumane ‘Remain In Mexico’ Policy

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (April 21, 2022) — Take Back the Court and Presente.org today released a new policy brief that examines the Supreme Court’s role in perpetuating the cruel, Trump-era ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy. The brief comes days before the Court is slated to hear oral arguments in Biden v. Texas, teeing up another opportunity for the Court to impose the right-wing justices’ extreme and harmful agenda from the bench.

“The Supreme Court is poised to entrench protocols that expose thousands of asylum-seekers to inhumane conditions, usurping the Biden administration’s ability to conduct foreign policy and striking yet another blow to American democracy,” the brief states. “By forcing the continuation of the Trump administration’s cruel Migrant Protection Protocols (‘MPP’) — widely referred to as the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy — the Supreme Court would be imposing a second Trump presidency from the bench despite his decisive loss in the 2020 election.”

The brief explores the dangerous potential consequences of a ruling that upholds ‘Remain in Mexico.’ It also scrutinizes the potential for judicial encroachment on the executive branch’s authority over foreign affairs, illustrating how an adverse ruling would give federal judges broad and unprecedented power to override clearly defined presidential authority.

“Allowing this cruel policy to remain in place would only further marginalize asylum-seekers arriving at our nation’s doorstep by subjecting them to needless hardship instead of affording them their rights — let alone basic human decency,” said Sarah Lipton-Lubet, executive director of Take Back the Court. “Allowing this rogue Court to usurp President Biden’s authority and force the former president’s agenda on a country that roundly rejected him is unacceptable. There’s only one way to remedy the monumental danger facing our democracy: we have to expand the Court.”

“We will do everything within our power to stop the Supreme Court from turning into a massive punishment apparatus that rewards high-society thugs and fear merchants who sully the Constitution, erode our democratic values, and ignore the rule of law — all while enriching those who traffic in white supremacy, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, exclusion, and corporate domination,” said Matt Nelson, director of Presente.org, Alianza Americas’ digital organizing powerhouse. "Expanding the Supreme Court is part of a growing movement for democracy that aligns our most powerful institutions with affirming and protecting full human rights, fairness, and dignity for all people. With few exceptions, the overall trajectory of the Court’s 233-year history has been to protect elites at the expense of the rest of us, and that legacy needs to change,” added Nelson.

The disastrous policy remains in force after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in December 2021 requiring the Biden administration to continue enforcing the inhumane practice. The stolen, hyper-partisan Court already issued a ruling on the Biden administration’s attempts to end ‘MPP’: in a partisan 6-3 decision in August 2021, it refused to block the district court’s injunction that ordered the policy to be reinstated.

A full copy of the policy brief can be found on theTake Back the Court website.

Aaaron Belkin is Director of Take Back The Court. During his 20 years of work on LGBT policy advocacy, he has been recognized as a leader in the effort to end DADT and the military's transgender ban.