Trump Keeps Promise To Defend Border, Now Deploying US Troops in Anticipation of Surge of Illegals
President Donald Trump must be thinking of the immortal words of Scarface, “You want to play games? Okay, I play with you.”
In response to the almost always liberal-leaning Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to halt the administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols — also known as “Remain in Mexico” — starting on March 12, the president has sent a message.
Say hello to his little friends. And by little friends, I mean the United States military members being sent to the border to help secure it from the flood of migrants the administration now expects.
According to The Daily Caller, in a conference call with reporters on Friday, senior officials with Customs and Border Protection said that they feared an influx of migrants at the border in light of the ruling.
They also said that with the fear of coronavirus, they are concerned that carriers could come across the border and spread the disease.
“As demonstrated last Friday, following the 9th Circuit’s [Migrant Protection Protocol] ruling announcement, the balancing between facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and travel while upholding our national border security mission and the safety of the public and our personnel is delicate,” one senior official said.
“CBP ports of entry are not designed or equipped to handle extremely large groups of travelers arriving at the same time, and temporary closure of a [port of entry] is contemplated as an extreme option as necessary for public safety and border security,” they said.
The “Remain in Mexico” policy, which was started in January 2019, has been an effective means of mitigating illegal border crossings.
But liberal groups, as they usually do, could not leave well enough alone and continue an orderly process.
If they were really concerned about legitimate asylum cases, why would they have an issue with applicants staying in Mexico while their court cases play out?
The program has seen tens of thousands of migrants sent to Mexico during the adjudication of their cases, the Caller reported.
This effectively ended the policy of “catch and release” in which migrants were given a court date and released into the United States, some of them never to be seen again.
When the appeals court blocked the MPP on Feb. 28, migrants began to rush the border and officials had to shut it down.
The court put the ruling on hold, but then decided to block the program in California and Arizona starting on March 12.
On Friday, the administration filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court asking to keep the policy in place pending appeal, but if the court does not weigh in before March 12, all hell could break loose on the border.
“Based on the pending [Migrant Protection Protocol] decision, continued concerns of large groups attempting to enter through [ports of entry], and COVID-19 containment and mitigation concerns, CBP has activated the crisis response force,” the CBP official said.
Around 160 active-duty personnel will be sent to the border, with 80 going to the Paso del Norte port of entry in Texas and 80 going to the San Ysidro port of entry in California.
The force will not engage in immigration enforcement and will be active at the border for two weeks beginning no later than Saturday.
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