The Washington Post - USA (2020-10-20)

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A2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20 , 2020


HAPPENING TODAY

For the latest updates all day, visit
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8:30 a.m. | The Commerce
Department issues housing
starts for September, with an
expected rate of 1 .451 million, up
from 1.416 million in August. Visit
washingtonpost.com/business for
details.


1 p.m. | Chad Wolf, acting
homeland security secretary,
participates in a virtual Heritage
Foundation event titled “The State
of the Wall and Immigration.” For
developments, visit
washingtonpost.com/politics.


7 p.m. | President Trump holds a
campaign rally in Erie, Pa. Visit
washingtonpost.com/politics for
details.


8:09 p.m. | The Tampa Bay Rays
and Los Angeles Dodgers play in
Game 1 of M ajor League
Baseball’s 2020 World Series in
Arlington, Tex. Follow the action at
postsports.com.


KLMNO


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tion from Central America.
A federal judge blocked the
initiative with a nationwide in-
junction, saying the policy con-
tradicted the text of the Immi-
gration and Nationality Act. A
9th Circuit panel upheld part of
the ruling.
Challengers have said that
restrictions put in place because
of the coronavirus pandemic
make the Supreme Court’s re-
view of the lower-court rulings
unnecessary at this time.
Moreover, they said the policy
is hurtful.
“A sylum seekers face grave
danger every day this illegal and
depraved policy is in effect,” said
Judy Rabinovitz, a lawyer for the
ACLU, one of the groups chal-
lenging the policy. “The courts
have repeatedly ruled against it,
and the Supreme Court should
as well.”
A spokesman for the asylum
officers’ union said Monday that
they are anxiously awaiting a
Supreme Court ruling in the
case and are worried about the
thousands of people spirited
away from the border to poten-
tial danger.
“The law is that people who
knock at our door or who cross
our border, whether legally or
illegally, have the right to have
their asylum case heard in safe-
ty,” said Michael Knowles, an
asylum officer and a spokesman
for the union. “They should not
be returned somewhere they
would be in danger. That’s f unda-
mental to the law.”
Since last spring, the Trump
administration has implemented
emergency pandemic restric-
tions along the southwestern
border that allow agents to “ex-
pel” most migrants back to Mexi-
co in a matter of hours.
But after an initial drop in
border crossings, arrests have
been steadily rising, driven m ost-
ly by Mexican adults trying to
enter the United States again and
again.
The number of migrants
whom U.S. border agents took
into custody rose to a 13-month
high in September, according to
U.S. Customs and Border Protec-
tion figures.
The border wall case is Trump
v. Sierra Club, and the immigra-
tion case is Wolf v. Innovation
Law Lab.
[email protected]

Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti
contributed to this report.

BY ROBERT BARNES

The Supreme Court on Mon-
day said it would take up two
challenges to President Trump’s
immigration initiatives: his di-
version of military funds to pay
for construction of the southern
border wall, and a policy that
has required tens of thousands
of asylum seekers to remain in
Mexico while their claims are
processed.
The Trump administration
had asked the court to intervene
in both because of decisions
against it in lower courts. Also
in both cases, the justices have
previously allowed the adminis-
tration to proceed with its plans
while the merits of the issues
were litigated.
The cases will not be heard
until next year, so a change in
administrations after next
month’s election could alter the
legal landscape or even make
the court’s consideration unnec-
essary.
In July, the court rejected a
last-ditch effort from environ-
mentalists to stop ongoing con-
struction of parts of the border
wall. The previous month, a
panel of the U.S. Court of Ap-
peals for the 9th Circuit ruled
that it was unlawful for the
administration to use funds in-
tended for the Defense Depart-
ment on the wall instead.
By the time the court hears
the case, say lawyers for the
American Civil Liberties Union,
which is representing the Sierra
Club and the Southern Border
Communities Coalition, the
Trump administration will have
used all the money.
But the administration told
the court it was important for it
to weigh in to correct the deci-
sion that the president did not
have the authority to redirect
military funds.
Trump, who ran for office in
2016 promising that Mexico
would pay for his plans to
expand the border wall, has
obtained more than $15 billion
in federal funds for his signature
project, including $5 billion pro-
vided by Congress through con-
ventional appropriations. The
president has tapped into Penta-
gon accounts for the remaining
$10 billion, including the
$2.5 billion transfer last year
that the 9th Circuit said was
unlawful.
In 2019, the Supreme Court in
an emergency order allowed the
administration to proceed with
the transfers and contracts for
construction, even though
House Democrats, affected
states and environmental
groups said that violated the
will of Congress, which withheld
the funds from the administra-

Justices to hear 2 cases on immigration policy

Challenges to Trump’s
‘Remain in Mexico’
initiative, wall funding

tion.
As a practical matter, much of
the $2.5 billion has been spent,
and the portions of the wall
funded by it have been built. As
of this summer, about 40 miles
of two projects in New Mexico
and Arizona had yet to be com-
pleted.
In allowing the administra-
tion to proceed, the Supreme
Court’s conservative majority
said the government had “made
a sufficient showing at this
stage” that private entities could
not challenge the transfer of
money by the executive branch.
But all of the lower courts that
have heard the dispute have

disagreed, with the 9th Circuit
panel’s m erits decision this sum-
mer affirming the ruling of a
district judge.
“It is for the courts to enforce
Congress’s priorities,” the panel
said in a 2-to-1 decision, and it
found that the Sierra Club “may
invoke separation-of-powers
constraints, like the Appropria-
tions Clause, to challenge agen-
cy spending in excess of its
delegated authority.”
In its brief, the ACLU said: “It
could not be plainer that Con-
gress rejected President Trump’s
funding request for the wall
construction in dispute here.
The president himself conceded

that Congress turned him
down.”
In the other case, the court in
March granted the Trump ad-
ministration’s emergency re-
quest to let it enforce its Migrant
Protection Protocols, also
known as the “Remain in Mexi-
co” policy. It allows the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security to
return immigrants who cross at
the southern border to Mexico
while they wait for their claims
to be heard.
The protocol, which took ef-
fect in January 2019, was a
fundamental change to previous
U.S. policy and was intended to
protect against massive migra-

PHOTOS BY CAROLYN VAN HOUTEN/THE WASHINGTON POST

ABOVE: Border Patrol Agent
Anthony Garcia poses in August
2019 at a site in Calexico, Calif.,
where a new border wall is
replacing old fencing.

LEFT: Migrant families from
Central America use mylar
blankets to stay warm as they
wait in El Paso in February
20 19 to be processed by Border
Patrol agents and taken to a
holding facility. Many of the
migrants were seeking asylum.

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