Victory! Supreme Court Stays Wait in Mexico Injunction

March 11, 2020

Agrees with IRLI that policy should remain in effect pending appeal

WASHINGTON – Today the U.S. Supreme Court, in an 8-1 ruling, suspended an injunction against the Trump administration’s policy of sending asylum seekers who cross the southern border back into Mexico to wait for their asylum hearings there. This Wait in Mexico policy has been credited with substantially ameliorating the crisis at the border.

The Court did not explain its reasons for granting the stay, but a friend-of-the-court brief filed on Monday by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) in support of the government’s emergency application for a stay had set forth a laundry list of legal problems with the injunction.

“Once again, anti-borders activists’ delaying tactics have been thwarted,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “This policy combined with others has greatly lowered the number of illegal border crossings, and there would have been a new surge into Arizona and California if the stay had been denied. As it is, when Trump eventually wins this case on appeal, the victory will come without all the damage from years of non-enforcement that the activists sought.”

The case is Wolf v. Innovation Law Lab, No.19A960 (Supreme Court).

For additional information, contact:

Brian Lonergan • 202-232-5590 • [email protected]