Supreme Court: Biden can end Trump-era asylum policy

A migrant from Haiti waits with others at a clinic for migrants in Tijuana, Monday, May 23, 2022. The Supreme Court has ruled that the Biden administration properly ended a Trump-era policy forcing some U.S. asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico. The justices’ 5-4 decision for the administration came in a case about the “Remain in Mexico” policy under President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

The Supreme Court said Thursday the Biden administration can scrap a Trump-era immigration policy that was at the center of efforts to deter asylum-seekers, forcing some to wait in Mexico. Two conservative justices joined their three liberal colleagues in siding with the White House.

The justices’ decision came in a case involving former President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, formally know as Migrant Protection Protocols, which enrolled about 70,000 people after it was launched in 2019.

President Joe Biden suspended the program on his first day in office in January 2021. But lower courts ordered it reinstated in response to a lawsuit from Republican-led Texas and Missouri. The current administration has sent far fewer people back to Mexico than did the Trump administration.