The Southern border is still bumping up against all-time levels of chaos as the crisis continues. Reports of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants being released into the interior have exasperated the issue, with another human convoy of tens of thousands of Haitians making its way through Central America.
The message from the White House has been clear by virtue of their actions: the border is wide open.
But maybe that’s finally changing? According to The Hill, Biden is waving the white flag in November and reimplementing Donald Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy.
The Biden administration told the courts late Thursday that it plans to reimplement the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy in mid-November if it can get buy-in from the neighboring government.
The move comes after an initial victory by Texas and Missouri in a suit that argued the Biden administration too hastily withdrew the policy, under which the U.S. transported 70,000 asylum-seekers to Mexico to await a determination in their case.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has appealed the case and is working on a memo to rescind the program anew, but it is still required to reimplement what was formally termed the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) “in good faith.”
Of course, this surrender isn’t voluntary but forced by a court decision that found in favor of Texas and Missouri recently regarding the Remain in Mexico policy And while they are appealing, given the precedent set under the Trump administration in regards to executive rescinding programs, it’s unlikely the Supreme Court would offer relief.
I suspect the appeal is just a formality anyway. The administration has to signal to its far-left base that they really want the border to remain a dumpster fire, but in reality, I suspect they want this crisis to end just as much as Republicans do. It’s a bleeding wound for Biden’s presidency, and the longer it’s left open, the worse things will get for Democrats in 2022.
Besides, the Remain in Mexico policy worked. It served as a deterrent because illegal immigrants knew they wouldn’t be immediately released into the United States. It also allowed the federal government to process people claiming asylum with some semblance of organization. What is happening now is an affront to the rule of law and a humanitarian disaster, but Biden needs to save face. This court order provides the cover they need to go ahead and surrender while pretending they didn’t surrender.
And at this point, fine. Whatever it takes to provide some relief, do it. Things are that bad at the Southern border, and the current situation is completely unsustainable.