Talk about timing. Here we are, five days away from the end of Title 42 and a federal judge temporarily blocked ending the Migrant Protection Protocols, a.k.a. Remain in Mexico policy. While we’ve all been focused on Title 42, the Remain in Mexico policy has been in limbo. It still is but there is a little hope that it is moving in the right direction.

I’ll set the table. The previous administration worked out an agreement with Mexican officials that required asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court. It was called the Migrant Protection Protocols, or more simply, the Remain in Mexico policy. This deal went into effect in January 2019 to ease overcrowding along the U.S. side of the southern border during the Trump administration. Using the policy, about 70,000 asylum-seekers were sent back to wait in Mexico for their U.S. hearing. Then Joe Biden came into office and shut down the program on his very first day in office.

A long legal process began.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas, a Trump appointee in Amarillo, ordered the policy be reinstated in 2021. The Biden administration complied with the order after agreeing to some changes and additions to the policy that were demanded by Mexico. However, the administration didn’t widely enforce the policy and only a few thousand people were sent back to Mexico to wait for their hearings.

The policy worked its way to the Supreme Court and in June, by a vote of 5-4, it ruled that Biden could end the policy but it threw it back to Kacsmaryk on one main issue. He was tasked with determining whether or not the administration’s action was “arbitrary and capricious”, violating federal law for crafting regulations.

That’s how we got to where we are now. The policy dispute found its way back to Judge Kacsmaryk and he issued a temporary stay on ending the policy until legal challenges by Texas and Missouri are settled. He did not, however, order the policy reinstated. It is not clear what this means going forward. It seems that we’re stuck with the status quo for now. The Remain in Mexico policy is not really in effect but it isn’t terminated, either. Everything is on hold with Judge Kacsmaryk until the Texas and Missouri challenges are settled.

Governor Abbott took the win, for now.

“It’s a common sense policy to prevent people from entering our country illegally,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted after the ruling. “Texas wins again, for now.”

Texas court compels Biden to continue enforcing the remain in Mexico policy.

It’s a common sense policy to prevent people from entering our country illegally.

Texas wins again, for now. https://t.co/MJEOIw1mzw

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) December 16, 2022

Predictably, the Department of Homeland Security disagrees with the judge’s temporary block. It is considering next steps. DHS said the government is well within its authrotiy to end the policy.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it disagreed with the ruling and was considering its next steps. It said the government was within its authority to end the policy.

As I mentioned above, Title 42 ends in five days. The Biden border crisis is about to explode. We’ll see how DHS feels when that happens. It will need all the tools it can get.

Stay tuned.