By David Beard, The Dominion Post
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the Biden administration, saying the termination of a Trump-era immigration policy is facilitating the flow of fentanyl across the southern border.
Morrisey filed the suit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security an Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The suit is in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.
The suit asks the court to force Homeland Security to reconsider its termination of the Remain in Mexico policy, alleging Mayorkas canceled the policy without due consideration for the impact on efforts to stop the smuggling of illegal drugs such as fentanyl.
Morrisey expressed his concerns about Mayorkas’ actions in a June 7 letter to him, but Mayorkas never replied, Morrisey said.
Morrisey explains the problem in the court filing. Homeland Security established the Migrant Protection Protocols (nicknamed Remain in Mexico) in December 2018 to deter individuals without legal authorization or valid asylum claims from seeking to enter the United States by crossing the Southwest border. Asylum applicants attempting to cross the order were returned to Mexico during expedited processing of their claims rather than held in detention or paroled into the United States…
