Biden Moves to End 'Remain in Mexico' Policy Despite Raging Border Crisis
The Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security issued a memorandum Friday announcing its plans to end the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy, officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols.
“After carefully considering the arguments, evidence, and perspectives presented by those who support re-implementation of MPP, those who support terminating the program, and those who have argued for continuing MPP in a modified form, I have determined that MPP should be terminated,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote.
“In reaching this conclusion, I recognize that MPP likely contributed to reduced migratory flows. But it did so by imposing substantial and unjustifiable human costs on the individuals who were exposed to harm while waiting in Mexico,” Mayorkas added.
It’s not the first time the Biden administration has announced plans to end the Remain in Mexico policy. An attempt in June was thwarted in federal court.
“The Department of Homeland Security intends to issue in the coming weeks a new memorandum terminating the Migrant Protection Protocols,” DHS said in a September statement.
“Although the Department issued a June 2021 memorandum that terminated MPP, a Texas district court vacated that prior termination determination and issued an injunction that requires the Department to work in good faith to re-start MPP. The Department has appealed that injunction,” it said.
The Supreme Court ruled against the Biden administration’s effort to end the policy in August as it declined to block an order from a Texas federal judge requiring the policy to be put back in place.
“The applicants have failed to show a likelihood of success on the claim that the memorandum rescinding the Migrant Protection Protocols was not arbitrary and capricious,” the Supreme Court’s order said.
The ruling forced the DHS to make a “good faith” effort to restart the program, despite the administration’s plans to again attempt to rescind it.
“In the meantime, while the court injunction remains in effect, the Department has been working in good faith to re-start MPP in compliance with the order, and it will continue to do so,” the DHS said in a September memo.
“To that end, the Department, working with the Department of State, is engaged in ongoing and high-level diplomatic discussions with Mexico,” it added.
On his first day in office, Biden issued executive orders ending border wall construction and shutting down the Migrant Protection Protocols, prompting the worst migrant crisis in 21 years.
The Biden administration also soon re-implemented the Obama-era “catch and release” policy.
Former President Donald Trump released a statement in June blasting the Biden administration’s efforts to end his “Remain in Mexico” policy.
“Remain in Mexico, also known as MPP (Migrant Protection Protocols), was not only a historic foreign policy triumph but one of the most successful border security programs anyone has ever put into effect anywhere,” Trump said.
“Along with our Central America Safe Third agreements, asylum reforms, and expedited removal procedures we drove border numbers to record lows and we ENDED the horrendous practice known as Catch-and-Release,” he said.
“No American President had ever done more to defend the border and safeguard the whole immigration system.”
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