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Page Number: 9

4 

BIDEN v. TEXAS 

Opinion of the Court 

to terminate or modify the [MPP] program.”  86 Fed. Reg.
8269 (2021).

On June 1, 2021, Secretary Mayorkas issued a memoran-
dum officially terminating MPP (the June 1 Memorandum).
In that memorandum, the Secretary noted his determina-
tion  “that  MPP  [d]oes  not  adequately  or  sustainably  en-
hance border management in such a way as to justify the
program’s  extensive  operational  burdens  and  other  short-
falls.”  App. to Pet. for Cert. 351a.  He also emphasized that,
since  its  inception,  MPP  had  “played  an  outsized  role  in 
[DHS’s]  engagement  with  the  Government  of  Mexico,” 
given  the  “significant  attention  that  it  draws  away  from
other elements that necessarily must be more central to the
bilateral relationship.”  Id., at 357a.  For those and other 
reasons,  the  Secretary  announced  that  he  was  “by  this 
memorandum  terminating  the  MPP  program,”  and  “di-
rect[ed]  DHS  personnel  to  take  all  appropriate  actions  to
terminate MPP, including taking all steps necessary to re-
scind implementing guidance and other directives or policy 
guidance issued to implement the program.”  Id., at 348a– 
349a. 

B 
On April 13, 2021, the States of Texas and Missouri (re-
spondents) initiated this lawsuit in the Northern District of
Texas  against  Secretary  Mayorkas  and  others.    Respond-
ents’  initial  complaint  challenged  the  Acting  Secretary’s 
January 20 suspension of new enrollments in MPP, but fol-
lowing the June 1 Memorandum, they amended their com-
plaint to challenge the Secretary’s June 1 rescission of the 
entire program.  The amended complaint asserted that the
June 1 Memorandum violated the INA and the Administra-
tive Procedure Act (APA), 5 U. S. C. §701 et seq., and sought 
preliminary  and  permanent  injunctive  relief,  declaratory
relief, and vacatur of the rescission pursuant to the APA.

The District Court conducted a one-day bench trial and