By Mica Rosenberg

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – A U.S. appels court rejected Monday a new attempt by the Biden government to repeal a policy that was put into place by Donald Trump and forced thousands of migrants to wait for resolution in Mexico.

The Democrat President Joe Biden scrapped the Republican policies of his predecessor – sometimes referred as “Remain-in-Mexico” – shortly after he was elected in January. After Missouri and Texas filed lawsuits over the rescission of his predecessor’s policy, a federal judge decided it needed to be reinstated.

Officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, the 2019 policy requires that asylum seekers must wait in Mexico for their U.S. court dates. They cannot then be allowed to attend hearings in the United States. Biden decried this policy while on his campaign trail. Immigration advocates claimed that migrants trapped in border-city areas have been subject to kidnappings, and other dangers.

In the hope of overcoming legal obstacles, the Biden administration issued a new memo ending MPP. The conservative-leaning 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not accept the memo.

In a Monday night ruling, the court said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “claims the power to implement a massive policy reversal — affecting billions of dollars and countless people — simply by typing out a new Word document and posting it on the internet. The court did not receive any input from Congress. There were also no rulesmaking procedures or judicial reviews.

In a 117-page opinion, the judges stated that DHS had not been able to carry its burden and show it could make laws in a vacuum.

Both the White House and U.S. Department of Justice didn’t immediately reply to our request for comment.

The administration sent the first asylum-seekers back to Mexico last week in compliance with court orders.

Republicans are expressing concern at the record number of immigrants caught crossing to Mexico from the United States.

However, many migrants who are arrested at the border get expelled quickly without any chance of being granted asylum. This is due to a Trump policy that was in effect at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and which Biden maintained.