WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court sided with President Joe Biden on Thursday as he seeks to end a hardline immigration policy begun under his predecessor Donald Trump that forced tens of thousands of migrants to stay in Mexico to await US hearings on their asylum claims.

The justices, in a 5-4 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, overturned a federal appeals court decision requiring Biden to restart Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy after the Republican-led states of Texas and Missouri sued to maintain the program. The ruling is a victory for Biden, who appealed the lower court’s decision, and his plan to implement a more “humane” approach at the southern border.

The justices concluded that the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals erred in finding that federal immigration law required sending migrants back to Mexico so long as there was not enough space to detain them in the United States.

The justices also threw out the 5th Circuit’s decision to void the administration’s June 2021 decision to end the program. The 5th Circuit found that the administration had failed to properly explain its rescinding of the Trump policy in violation of federal administrative law. But the Supreme Court found that the June 2021 decision was superseded by a new, more detailed one issued by the administration four months later.