Padilla Statement on Supreme Court Decision on “Remain in Mexico” Program
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, released the following statement on the Supreme Court’s decision today in Biden v. Texas:
“Today’s Supreme Court decision correctly acknowledges the Biden administration’s authority to end the unlawful and cruel ‘Remain in Mexico’ program. For more than three years, this horrifying policy has denied asylum seekers their right to due process and subjected them to crimes like rape, kidnapping, and torture in northern Mexican border cities while they await their court hearings.
“I urge the Biden administration to do everything in its power to swiftly end ‘Remain in Mexico’ once and for all. Misguided and inhumane Trump-era policies like ‘Remain in Mexico’ and Title 42 have only decimated an already broken immigration system. We must keep working to restore the lawful processing of asylum seekers at the border, in keeping with America’s most deeply held values as a nation of immigrants.”
Last year, Padilla joined a bicameral group of lawmakers urging President Biden to take all necessary legal steps to terminate the Remain in Mexico policy—also known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP)—which forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers and migrants to stay in dangerous conditions in Mexico as their asylum claims are adjudicated in US immigration courts.
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