Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-954_7l48.pdf
Page Number: 11.0

6 

BIDEN v. TEXAS 

Opinion of the Court 

While the Government’s appeal was pending, however, Sec-
retary  Mayorkas  “considered  anew  whether  to  maintain,
terminate, or modify MPP in various ways.”  App. to Pet. 
for Cert. 286a.  On September 29, 2021, the Secretary pub-
licly  announced  his  “inten[tion]  to  issue  in  the  coming
weeks a new memorandum terminating [MPP].”  20 F. 4th 
928, 954 (CA5 2021).  The Government then moved to hold 
the appeal in abeyance pending the Secretary’s formal de-
cision, but the Court of Appeals denied the motion. 

On October 29, the Secretary released a four-page mem-
orandum  that  again  announced  the  termination  of  MPP, 
along with a 39-page addendum explaining his reasons for 
doing so (the October 29 Memoranda).  As the Secretary ex-
plained, this new assessment of MPP “examined considera-
tions that the District Court determined were insufficiently
addressed in the June 1 memo, including claims that MPP 
discouraged unlawful border crossings, decreased the filing 
of  non-meritorious  asylum  claims,  and  facilitated  more 
timely relief for asylum seekers, as well as predictions that 
termination  of  MPP  would  lead  to  a  border  surge,  cause 
[DHS] to fail to comply with alleged detention obligations 
under the [INA], impose undue costs on states, and put a 
strain  on  U. S.-Mexico  relations.”    App.  to  Pet.  for  Cert. 
259a–260a. 

The Secretary acknowledged what he called “the strong-
est argument in favor of retaining MPP: namely, the signif-
icant decrease in border encounters following the determi-
nation to implement MPP across the southern border.”  Id., 
at 261a.  But he nonetheless concluded that the program’s
“benefits do not justify the costs, particularly given the way
in  which  MPP  detracts  from  other  regional  and  domestic 
goals, foreign-policy objectives, and domestic policy initia-
tives  that  better  align  with  this  Administration’s  values.” 
Ibid.  Finally, the Secretary once again noted that “[e]fforts
to implement MPP have played a particularly outsized role