Should Biden do this?
After suspending the “remain in Mexico” policy, the Biden administration will make changes to the Trump-era policy to comply with a court order. According to former President Donald Trump acting secretary of homeland security, Chad Wolf, these changes will “sabotage” the effectiveness of the policy.
Talking to Newsmax on Monday, Wolf revealed that the current policy “could make an impact again if it’s implemented correctly,” while emphasizing that the “little changes” to the policy could jeopardize its effectiveness. One significant change Wolf highlighted is that under these changes, asylum-seeking immigrants would be asked if they have a fear of returning to Mexico.
Wolf elaborated, saying more people would say yes that they would not want to wait in Mexico, essentially abusing the asylum system “by saying they have a fear of returning to Mexico, whether they do or don’t.”
During the Trump administration, the Migrant Protection Protocol required illegal or undocumented migrants seeking admission into the US to return to Mexico, where they would have to wait for their immigration proceedings.
When President Joe Biden started his term, he canceled this program. But a federal judge ruled that Biden’s decision did not comply with proper procedure, ordering that he reinstate the program.
Last week the administration revealed it would restart the protocol while emphasizing the delay was because it had to work out details with Mexico.
Discussing these events on Monday, Wolf said he believed that ending MPP was one of the causes fueling the “historic border crisis.”
Wolf also mentioned that he believed Biden should have improving programs put in place under the Trump administration rather than canceling programs that resulted in “the worst border crisis that we’ve seen in our lifetimes.”
He continued his lashing at the Biden administration, saying, “Now that the program has been discontinued for ten months, reinstating it won’t have an immediate effect.” To elaborate on this, he mentioned that the Trump administration had to wait months for the program to take effect.
He also lamented the administration’s “credibility problem,” pointing to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ plans to cancel it for the second time once the court order is overturned.
An October memo by Mayorkas revealed that he believed the MPP had “endemic flaws” and “imposed unjustifiable human costs,” pulling “resources and personnel away from other priority efforts.” The memo further stated that Mayorkas believed the MPP did not address the root causes of irregular migration.
However, Wolf disagrees, stating that any plans to end the program would send “the wrong message” to migrants, cartels, and smugglers since they would “know that the Biden administration is not serious about implementing MPP,” said Wolf.
He elaborated by saying, “You’ve got to have the leadership and the will to implement this policy and stick with it, and I don’t think that this administration has that.”
