As part of a Monday morning announcement handed out by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, the department is preparing to get rid of Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” border policy in a “quick and orderly manner.”
This particular announcement comes in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court going along with a ruling, in a 5-4 vote, back at the first of August, which would let those in the Biden Administration end the Migrant Protection Protocols, which required migrants and asylum seekers who make their way to the U.S. southern border to stay in Mexico as they wait for their official trials for immigration. But with the highest court in the nation creating a path for DHS officials to get rid of Trump’s immigration policy, all of the people waiting in Mexico until their official trial dates now have the option to make their way across the border and stay in the United States while waiting for the legal outcome of their requests.
“As Secretary Mayorkas has said, [Migrant Protection Protocols], has endemic flaws, imposes unjustifiable human costs, and pulls resources and personnel away from other priority efforts to secure our border,” stated the DHS in their statement.
Despite this, the various supporters of this border policy from Trump have labeled it an overall effective deterrent for illegal immigrants coming into the border claiming asylum, stating that the program has been a benefit overall due to the roughly 70,000 asylum seekers that have made their way through successfully via the program while those trying to get into the country illegally have been detained.
Back in 2021, President Joe Biden sent out the order to put an end to the policy but ran into a wall of litigation from Texas and Missouri, which sued the president’s administration for their violations of the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs the process by which various federal agencies create and issue regulations. One lower court issued an order against the Biden admin to set back in place the policy as of this past December.
Officials with the DHS have stated that roughly 70,000 people have been subjected to this policy until its suspension from President Biden on his very first day in office back in 2021. In the wake of the court system forcing Biden to set the policy back up, Almost 5,800 migrants were subjected to it from December to June, with quite a few coming from Cuba, Columbia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
While carrying out his role as a ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WS) issued a letter to DHS officials this year in the wake of getting data from the federal agency. The data disclosed that between March and August 2021, well over 270,000 illegal aliens were allowed into the United States with almost no plans for removal.
Of that number that was let in, around 50,000 — more than half of which were allowed into the country via a Notice to Report (NTR)– outright failed to show up for their assigned deportation proceedings.
“DHS further clarified that between March 21, 2021, and December 5, 2021, ICE issued 50,683 NTAs to aliens previously released on an NTR,” johnson claimed via a statement. “For over 40,000 of those cases, ICE does not have data on what immigration court is overseeing these cases, despite the fact that ICE acts as the prosecutor in deportation proceedings.”