Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-954_7l48.pdf
Page Number: 7

2 

BIDEN v. TEXAS 

Opinion of the Court 

action under the Administrative Procedure Act. 

The questions presented are whether the Government’s 
rescission of the Migrant Protection Protocols violated the
Immigration and Nationality Act and whether the Govern-
ment’s  second  termination  of  the  policy  was  a  valid  final
agency action. 

I 
A 
On December 20, 2018, then-Secretary of Homeland Se-
curity  Kirstjen  Nielsen  announced  a  new  program  called
Remain  in  Mexico,  also  known  as  the  Migrant  Protection
Protocols (MPP).  MPP was created in response to an immi-
gration  surge  at  the  country’s  southern  border,  and  a  re-
sulting “humanitarian and border security crisis” in which
federal  immigration  officials  were  encountering  approxi-
mately 2,000 inadmissible aliens each day.  554 F. Supp. 3d 
818, 831 (ND Tex. 2021).  MPP provided that certain non-
Mexican nationals arriving by land from Mexico would be
returned to Mexico to await the results of their removal pro-
ceedings  under  8  U. S. C.  §1229a.    On  the  same  day  that 
Secretary Nielsen announced the program, the Government 
of Mexico agreed that it would cooperate in administering 
it, on a temporary basis. 

MPP  was  implemented  pursuant  to  express  congres-
sional  authorization  in  the  Immigration  and  Nationality 
Act (INA), which provides that “[i]n the case of an alien . . . 
who is arriving on land (whether or not at a designated port 
of arrival) from a foreign territory contiguous to the United
States, the Attorney General may return the alien to that
territory pending a proceeding under section 1229a of this
title.”  66  Stat.  163,  as  added  and  amended,  8  U. S. C. 
§1225(b)(2)(C).1  Prior to the initiation of MPP, the Depart-
ment  of  Homeland  Security  (DHS)  and  its  predecessor 
—————— 

1 The provision refers to the Attorney General, but the authority it con-
fers  has  been  transferred  to  the  Secretary  of  Homeland  Security.    See