Since the chaos along our southern border peaked last May, there has been a precipitous decline in the flow of Central American economic migrants posing as asylum seekers entering the country illegally. Construction of additional border fencing and stepped up enforcement by Mexico at its own southern border have certainly played a significant role in alleviating the crisis, but it is another program implemented by the Trump administration that has had the greatest impact.
The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), first rolled out in January 2019, require migrants who want to seek asylum in the United States to wait in Mexico pending their immigration court hearing in the U.S.
Consider the old bromide that “politics ends at the water’s edge.” This was rooted in the idea that while there may be robust discussion internally on issues of international import, there is an assumption that in the end a bipartisan consensus must be established around policies that touch upon our international relations.
On August 2, Alejandro Mayorkas will have officially served as the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security for six months. In this short timeframe, Mayorkas has systematically erased our nation’s border security, causing record levels of illegal immigration, illicit drug flows and deaths. Mayorkas’ dereliction of his duty to safeguard the health and security of the American people means he must be removed from his position immediately.
Thirty-two months and nearly 9 million illegal border crossings (including “gotaways”) into President Biden’s term in office, his administration has finally acknowledged that there is a crisis at our border. On October 5, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it will waive 26 laws to “install additional physical barriers and roads (including the removal of obstacles to detection of illegal entrants) … to deter illegal crossings in areas of ‘high illegal entry’ into the United States”
Israel’s expected ground offensive in Gaza has yet to begin, but we are already hearing calls for the Biden administration to welcome Gaza residents to the United States using immigration parole authority. Doing so, in the midst of an already raging migration crisis, would be both illegal and ill-conceived.