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Yesterday we got the news that the U.S. Supreme Court will review the Trump administration’s outrageous, cruel and unlawful “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forces asylum seekers to wait in dangerous conditions in Mexico for their hearings in U.S. immigration court.

Together with our allies at the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed this case in February 2019 – just two weeks after the first asylum seeker was returned to Mexico in January. Even though we won a quick victory in federal court in April 2019, the indefensible policy has remained in place while the case works its way through the appeals process.

Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy is intentionally harmful to the thousands of people caught in its grasp. It has forced countless families and individuals to remain stranded across the border in increasingly perilous conditions, where they face violence and struggle desperately to survive. Our country has both a legal and a moral obligation to ensure these peoples’ security as they pursue their asylum claims. Yet this policy has created a predictable and entirely unnecessary humanitarian crisis just across our border – a crisis that has remained largely hidden from the American public.

The cruelty is the point of this inhumane edict. The “Remain in Mexico” policy, along with many of the Trump administration’s other attempts to end asylum in the United States, is intended to deter others from seeking refuge in our country. That’s not just our opinion – it’s the administration’s stated goal.

A federal court in California blocked the policy in April 2019. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision in February. And now, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide.

Make no mistake: We will do everything we can in court to block the “Remain in Mexico” policy for good. We owe that much to the thousands of asylum seekers whose fate rests on the court’s decision.

You can learn more about the case here and read more about the Supreme Court's announcement here.

In solidarity,

The Southern Poverty Law Center