For an administration with no major legislative accomplishments, one would think President Joe Biden would embrace an opportunity to do nothing. All he had to do was follow the Trump-era doctrine. Instead, his Day One actions spun our asylum system into a near collapse.
High-speed car chases, home break-ins, looting of local stores, and an unstoppable flood of drugs have become commonplace in communities across border states and nationwide because of his inability to do nothing. Fortunately, it can be simply remedied by either reinstating the Trump administration’s immigration policies or electing someone else who will.
From Day One, the Biden administration began a concerted effort to dismantle the highly successful policies that former President Donald Trump implemented at our southern border. The results speak for themselves: over 1,734,686 illegal encounters along the southern border this year alone. At this rate, there will be more than 2 million illegal crossings by the end of the year — the highest recorded number on record. The Biden administration laid out a welcome mat for illegal migrants, and the consequences have been devastating. The Biden administration’s failure to uphold Trump’s border policies has plagued communities with drug overdoses and convicted criminals, as well as an increased terrorism threat.
Trump’s focus on border security was always a far cry from Biden’s policies. Even as a candidate, Biden set the groundwork for an immigration crisis. In October 2020, Biden said, “Within 100 days, I’m going to send to the United States Congress a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people.” This set the tone of Biden’s border policy almost immediately: Biden will give you the green light to stay.
The current administration’s rhetoric was already enough of an invitation for migrants to swarm the border, but Biden’s decision to rescind several successful Trump immigration policies put the last nail in the coffin. From 2017 to 2020, the U.S. under Trump masterfully crafted and executed a comprehensive plan to bring illegal immigration under control. The Trump administration identified gaps within the U.S. asylum system that allowed migrants to skate by the immigration process and responded by instituting the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which deterred migrants from roaming freely and unchecked throughout the U.S. while awaiting their asylum adjudication.
One of Trump’s best deterrents for illegal immigration was the carefully negotiated “safe third country” agreements he initiated with Mexico and Central American countries. These agreements single-handedly halted fraudulent asylum cases along the southern border by requiring migrants to seek asylum in the first safe country they reach after departing from political and economic instability or fleeing imminent danger in their country of residence.
Despite the obvious advantages of keeping the Remain in Mexico policy in place and maintaining and expanding safe third country agreements, the Biden administration reversed the policy, allowed negotiations to lapse, and halted all prospects of stopping asylum abuse.
Troy Nehls represents Texas’s 22nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
