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The Supreme Court issued a decision Thursday allowing President Joe Biden to rescind a Trump-era "Remain in Mexico" policy.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz shared his disappointment with the decision in a tweet Thursday claiming removing the policy would be “disastrous.”
The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision on Thursday ruled that the Biden administration was legally justified in rescinding the “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy, according to the Supreme Court’s website.
“Disappointed in SCOTUS ruling allowing Biden to eliminate Remain in Mexico,” Cruz said in his tweet. “I pray he makes the right decision and keeps the policy, given our unprecedented border crisis. South Texas is seeing the impact of an open border already. Removing this would be disastrous.”
The policy—formally titled the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP)—required immigrants to reside in Mexico during all court proceedings that sought asylum. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the majority opinion. He was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan; Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a concurring opinion; Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation recently discussed how MPP “Remain in Mexico” policies helped curb immigration at the United States/Mexico border.
“It is clear that the Biden administration is committed to tearing down every effective border security program in existence, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision unfortunately helps clear the way for their essentially open borders agenda,” said Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Senior Director for Right on Immigration, in a press release. “The Migrant Protection Protocols were the single most effective measure implemented to stem massive, unrelenting abuse of the U.S. asylum system.”
Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, echoed Cruz’s sentiment on Twitter.
“I am disappointed in SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) allowing Biden to dissolve the Remain-in-Mexico program, one of our last and best protections against the Dems’ border crisis,” Paxton said in a tweet. “I will continue to fight to secure our border and hold Biden accountable in my dozen other border-security suits in federal court.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also shared his disappointment with the Supreme Court decision.
“The Supreme Court upheld the Biden administration's decision to terminate the Remain-in-Mexico policy,” Abbott said in a tweet Thursday. “This will only EMBOLDEN Biden's open border policies. Texas will continue to step up to secure our border in the federal government's absence.”
Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows an increase in immigration from Mexico to the U.S., according to the USCBP website. Over the past fiscal year, the U.S. Border Patrol reported 1,536,899 land border encounters along the U.S. southern border, representing a 236% increase in encounters since the end of Donald Trump’s presidency (FY2020).
There is a monetary link between immigration and human trafficking for Mexican cartels, according to Reuters. In recent years, Mexican cartels who previously stole oil and sold drugs shifted their operations to human trafficking. Mexico is an origin, transit, and destination country for the sex trafficking industry, and has recently seen an uptick in gangs shifting to dealing in people.
Cartels that have shifted to the human trafficking industry include the oil pipeline tapping and Guanajuato-based Santa Rosa de Lima gang, as well as the Mexico City Tepito Union drug gang, according to Reuters.
A 2016 report from the University of Texas at Austin stated there are 78,996 minor and youth victims of human trafficking and 234,457 victims of labor trafficking in Texas at any given time.