The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it has agreed to hear arguments around the Trump administration’s money grab to fund his border fencing and the dangerous and inhumane policy that has forced tens of thousands of asylum-seekers to wait out their immigration cases in Mexico, both decisions that have been ruled unlawful by lower courts but that have continued as litigation has been ongoing.
But because the cases around the border fencing and the Migrant Protection Protocols policy, or Remain in Mexico, won’t be heard right away, a potential Joe Biden administration could begin to take decisive action before any arguments are even heard: the former vice president has already vowed to end border fence construction and the Remain in Mexico policy should he be elected.
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When it comes to the Trump administration’s swindling of taxpayer funds to pay for the wall that he has long claimed Mexico was supposed to pay for, groups that sued the administration said that “every lower federal court that has considered the issue has held that Trump’s border wall illegally circumvents Congress’s deliberate decision not to fund the construction.”
“A district court last year and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in June ruled that President Trump’s attempt to circumvent Congress and transfer $2.5 billion in military pay and pension funds for border wall construction is unlawful,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition said. “The district court blocked the illegal wall construction, an order that the Ninth Circuit affirmed. However, because of an earlier Supreme Court stay on the district court’s order, the Trump administration has continued construction using funds unauthorized by Congress.”
Even as litigation over his swindling of taxpayer funds plays out in court after court, impeached president Donald Trump is still inexplicably claiming that Mexico will pay for the fencing, more than five years after he first uttered the lie as a presidential candidate.
“Everyone knows that Trump failed to get Congress to fund his xenophobic wall obsession,” ACLU’s National Security Project senior staff attorney Dror Ladin said, “and every lower court that has considered the case has found that the President has no authority to waste billions of taxpayer dollars on construction. We look forward to making the same case before the Supreme Court and finally putting a stop to the administration’s unconstitutional power grab.”
Also to be heard by the Supreme Court is the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision finding the dangerous and inhumane Remain in Mexico policy to be unlawful. “The American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, and Southern Poverty Law Center are challenging the policy,” the groups said in a statement, “which was blocked by a federal court in California last year, but has remained in effect due to court-ordered stays as the case is litigated.”
Under the policy, at least 60,000 asylum-seekers have been forced to wait out their cases in conditions that have left them vulnerable to disease, violence, and resulted in the tragic deaths of a number of asylum-seekers and their children.
Last year, Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his baby, Valeria, drowned after attempting to cross the Rio Grande, having grown despondent after waiting in Mexico for two months for a chance to ask for asylum. Devoid of basic human decency—much like the white supremacist in chief he works for—unlawfully appointed Department of Homeland Security official Ken Cuccinelli went on cable news to blame Óscar for his and his daughter’s deaths. Not only is this policy unlawfully blocking asylum-seekers, it has created more family separation following desperate parents sending their children across the border alone so at least they can have a chance at finding safety.
As noted, a potential Biden administration could move to begin to end both border fencing construction and Remain in Mexico (and fully reinstate programs like the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which the Trump administration is refusing to do in defiance of the Supreme Court’s order). But to have a decision on these cases will also have important implications should plaintiffs win.
“The ACLU, which represents the Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition in the lawsuit, has said it would seek to tear down sections of the wall if it wins the case,” USA Today reported. That is, if nature doesn’t take it down first. “If Biden wins election next month, his administration could do the same,” USA Today continued.
