No one knows how, when, or where the Biden administration will re-implement former President Donald Trump’s Remain in Mexico program, but what is clear is that the surge of migrants illegally crossing the southern border is not going to end on its own, with another 173,600 illegal immigrants arrested this November.
The Biden administration is still well on pace to arrest over 2 million migrants illegally crossing the southern border during his first full year in office, which arrives next month. About half of those arrested have been released into the country, where the Biden administration will make no effort to deport them, even though close to 90% of them will eventually lose their asylum claims.
That means close to one million illegal immigrants will have successfully entered the country since Joe Biden became president. The rest of the world knows this, which is why millions more are preparing to make the journey.
Texas and Missouri have successfully sued the Biden administration in federal court, winning a court order forcing Biden to re-implement Trump’s hugely successful Migrant Protection Protocols. This policy forces migrants to “Remain in Mexico” while their asylum cases are heard. With easy access to the United States denied, this program effectively ended an early border surge in 2019.
But the Biden administration has repeatedly fought this order, most recently losing yet another appeal just last week. In the meantime, the Department of Homeland Security has begrudgingly restarted MPP, but only in one city, and no one knows when or how the program will be expanded.
“MPP is effective and it would absolutely make a difference for border security,” Del Rio Sector Border Patrol Union President Jon Anfinsen told a local television station. “At this point, we don’t have anything, because MPP just is not up and running here. Now, we’re told that it will eventually come here. We just don’t know when or to what degree,” Anfinsen continued.
With law enforcement officers kept completely in the dark about DHS strategy, morale is low and resignations are rising. Border Patrol agent Mustafa Joseph recently shared his resignation letter to his superior, writing, “As the Patrol and the US Government at large slip more and more into the unrecognizable, it’s unclear what I took an oath to defend starting from way back in 1996 as a Navy Corpsman … The undocumented have gone from a fear of infringing the law to brazenly inquiring about what’s taking so long with their right to unconditional assimilation.”
Border Patrol agents aren’t the only ones frustrated with Biden’s directionless flailing on border security. According to the most recent Harvard-Harris poll, 65% of voters specifically blame Biden’s executive orders for increasing illegal immigration, and 54% agree that Biden’s policies are “creating an open border.”
Securing our nation’s borders is a primary responsibility of the federal government. Biden’s failure to articulate and implement a coherent border strategy is inexcusable, and if his sinking polling numbers are any indication, he and his party will pay the price at the ballot box soon.
