US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has delayed a district court injunction requiring the Biden administration to reinstate the Trump-era migrant protections protocols (MPP). In the Friday order, Alito wrote: “the injunction issued by the District Court is stayed until 11:59 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, August 24 so that the full Court can consider the application.”

Former president Donald Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, announced the MPP in January 2019. Under the program, individuals seeking admission to the US from Mexico were returned to Mexico for “the duration of the immigration proceedings.” Homeland Security believed the MPP would create a safer and more efficient immigration system.

President Joe Biden directed his administration to evaluate the program. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced in June that he had “no intention to resume MPP in any manner similar to the program as outlined” by Nielsen.

Last week, a judge for the District Court for the Nothern District of Texas ruled that the Biden administration must enforce the policy. After the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit declined to delay the injunction, the government appealed to the Supreme Court.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott claims that “Biden’s dangerous open border policies have led to drastic increases in crime [and] human trafficking on our southern border.” Abbott believes the Biden administration should “enforce the immigration laws on the books.”