[ARCHIVED - September 2025]
This class action lawsuit was filed in October 2020, with an updated complaint in December 2021, to challenge the Trump administration’s original implementation of the “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP) or “Remain in Mexico” policy, under which thousands of people seeking asylum or related relief at the southern border were made to return to Mexico to wait for their proceedings in U.S. immigration courts. The Biden administration limited and eventually terminated MPP in 2022.
Plaintiffs are individuals subjected to MPP, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, and Jewish Family Service of San Diego. They are represented by the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, Southern Poverty Law Center, Innovation Law Lab, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, and Arnold & Porter LLP.
In January 2025, the Trump administration announced it would reimplement the original form of MPP, so on February 11, Plaintiff ImmDef sought a nationwide stay of the reimplementation. On April 16, 2025, the district court granted this stay, and the government appealed and asked for a stay of the district court order pending the appeal. Plaintiff moved to dismiss the appeal, arguing that the stay decision is not appealable. After oral argument on June 24, on July 18 the Ninth Circuit denied Plaintiff’s motion to dismiss the appeal and granted the government’s motion for a stay pending appeal in part, permitting the government to partially resume the implementation of MPP and limiting the district court’s stay order to Plaintiff ImmDef’s current and future clients only.
Technical Summary
Plaintiff ImmDef argued in its motion for a stay pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act that reimplementation of MPP will cause ImmDef irreparable harm and interfere with ImmDef’s First Amendment right to advise existing and potential clients. Plaintiff also argued that the reimplementation violates the right to apply for asylum and access counsel.
