By Ira Mehlman
FAIR
Late on the Thursday, Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a ruling preventing the Biden administration from terminating the Migrant Protection Protocols, aka, Remain in Mexico. The situation at the southern border is hurtling from disastrous to catastrophic – and heading toward cataclysmic, if Title 42 is canceled in the coming weeks. Under the circumstances, the president and the adults in the White House (if there are any left), should view Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling as a deus ex machina opportunity to save themselves and the country.
Ruling on a challenge brought by the states of Texas and Missouri, Judge Kacsmaryk agreed with the plaintiffs that ending the Remain in Mexico policy was an “arbitrary and capricious” action on the part of the Biden administration. The judge also agreed that the states’ lawsuit would likely succeed on the merits and that allowing Remain in Mexico to lapse while the case makes its way through the legal system would result in irreparable harm to the plaintiffs. FAIR’s legal arm, the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), filed an amicus brief in support of Texas and Missouri.
Further, Judge Kacsmaryk found that the administration did not act rationally in summarily terminating Remain in Mexico upon assuming office in 2021, and that the action thwarted an overriding objective of U.S. immigration law – namely, reducing the flows of illegal immigration and maintaining operational control of our borders. In fact, the administration’s termination of Remain in Mexico and other policies that were in place before the president was sworn in, achieved precisely the opposite.
President Biden should view this ruling not as a defeat, but as an opportunity – an opportunity to free himself (and the nation) from the dangerous agenda of the radical open-borders leftists to whom he handed control of our immigration policies two years ago. As the Latin phrase deus ex machina suggests, Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling is an unexpected and timely gift from heaven that gives him a chance to get himself out of a jam of his own making. The ruling allows President Biden to tell those on the far left, “I tried, but the court prevented me,” while reinstating, and fully implementing, an effective deterrent to illegal immigration that the rest of the country wants.
Judge Kacsmaryk just tossed him a life vest. He should grab it.
