The Biden administration has rebuffed offers to help with the border crisis from key former Trump officials, even those with longtime immigration roles in the federal government, including the Obama-Biden administration.
Some of those officials said it happened again on Tuesday after the Supreme Court ordered the Biden team to reinstate the Trump-era policy of requiring asylum-seekers trying to enter from Mexico to remain there until their paperwork is completed, a diplomatic success that cut illegal crossings of migrant families by 75%.
“They only need to pull the game book from the shelf, dust it off, and implement,” said Mark Morgan, the former acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection and who was chief of the Border Patrol under President Barack Obama. “All the secretary has to do is give me a call. I’d be more than happy to help.”
Among the immigration reforms Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas nixed were the “migrant protection protocols,” also known as the “remain in Mexico” program. The court junked Biden’s move in a 6-3 vote.
Morgan said that those who put it in place stand ready to help the Biden team if they want. He also said that about 90% of the current border team at the Department of Homeland Security were also part of the program that not only cut immigration pressure on the border but also cut caravans of migrants into Mexico across its southern border.
But so far, he said, it has been crickets from Team Biden.
“There’s been zero contact, zero response,” said Morgan.
Trump officials have been sharply critical of political leaders in the Biden administration overseeing immigration, and that likely drives some of the silence, said Morgan.
He said that instead of implementing the Mexico policy as ordered by the court, it is likely that the Biden administration will “slow roll” any change and blame Mexico for any problems.
“DHS is already starting their excuses, but it’s all lies,” said Morgan. For example, he dismissed concerns raised about the added resources needed to put the Trump policy back into effect. He said cutting crossings by 150,000 of 200,000 a month will free up resources.
“It’s actually going to save resources because you can reduce the flow by 50%, 60%, 70%. You’re going to save exponentially more resources that you are actually using right now to process 212,000,” he said.
He suggested several moves the department could take or Congress could demand of DHS to put the Mexico policy back into effect:
- Begin enrolling people in MPP without releasing those encountered into the interior of the United States.
- Coordinate with Mexico to begin accepting MPP enrollees in key sectors along the Texas border, beginning with McAllen, then Laredo, Del Rio, and the other sectors overwhelmed.
- Stop releasing aliens previously enrolled in MPP, which we understand you have released over 13,000 to Make every effort to locate those previously enrolled in MPP that you’ve released and place them back into MPP and remove them to Mexico.
- Establish Immigration Hearing Facilities (IHF) at the border with a time line to begin hearings no later than 60 days from now.
