The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to a request from the Biden government to remove two immigration-related cases from the upcoming calendar because they were no longer needed due to policy changes by the new government.
In a brief order, the Supreme Court agreed to request that the cases be removed from the upcoming agenda for oral arguments.
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“The motions to suspend further briefing and to remove matters from the February 2021 argument calendar are granted,” the order said.
The first case, Biden v. Sierra Club, concerns the construction of the southern border wall and whether the Trump administration had the authority to transfer $ 2.5 billion in military funds to finance the project on the basis of a ” national emergency declaration “.
About 450 miles of wall was built under President Donald Trump, with about 350 additional miles funded.
But Biden, who promised to stop the wall if elected, stopped building the wall last week so that assessments could be made of the legality of the funding, the contract methods, and the consequences of stopping the projects.
The second case that was taken off the agenda by the court – Pekoske (Wolf) v. Innovation Law Lab – concerned the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). The policy, known as the Remain-in-Mexico Policy, sends migrants back to Mexico while they await their immigration hearings instead of being released in the US.
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Critics called the policy cruel and inhumane, while the Trump administration argued that it was vital to end “catch and release” and remove the pull factors that bring migrants to the US. More than 60,000 migrants had been returned under the policy.
The government had appealed lower court rulings invalidating the policy. But Biden had pledged to end MPP and signed an injunction on Tuesday to overhaul the program and let DHS decide whether to change or end the policy.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had indicated the government would eventually end the program, but has warned it “will take time.”
“MPP has been a disaster from the start, leading to a humanitarian crisis in Northern Mexico. But putting the new policy into practice will take time,” he said in December. “The current government has dismantled much of the necessary capacity to ensure the safe and orderly processing of migrants. We need time to increase processing capacity and do so in accordance with public health requirements.”
The repeal of the cases is the Biden administration’s final step in moving quickly away from Trump-era immigration policies. On Tuesday, Biden signed orders that will set up a task force to reunite families separated under his predecessor and review other Trump policies.
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“I’m not making new law, I’m eliminating bad policies,” said Biden of the Oval Office. “What I’m doing is addressing the issues that 99% of them, the last president of the United States issued executive orders, which I thought were very counterproductive to our security, counterproductive to who we are as a country, especially in the immigration area. “
He also ended the Trump-era travel ban and sought to bolster the 2012 Delayed Action for the Arrival of Children (DACA) program that Trump tried to end, but was rejected by the Supreme Court.