The same president who canceled Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy at the start of his term, resulting in an ongoing nightmare situation of migrants flooding the southern border, is set to reintroduce it next month.
According to administration officials, reports CNN, the Biden administration is planning to resurrect a Trump-era border policy that forces migrants to wait in Mexico until their US immigration court hearing in mid-November, putting it on course to execute yet another divisive policy at the US southern border.
Officials with the administration stressed that the timing is reliant on Mexico agreeing to admit people who have enlisted in the program.
The program, dubbed “remain in Mexico” colloquially, was stopped at the start of President Joe Biden’s tenure and formally abolished months later. However, in August, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the Biden administration had violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires agencies to follow particular procedures when adopting policy, and resurrected the program.
The Supreme Court later turned down the Biden administration’s bid to put the lower court judgment on hold, dealing a huge setback to the administration’s efforts to separate itself from Trump’s immigration policy.
While Biden administration officials have stated that they oppose the strategy, which is officially called as the Migrant Protection Protocols, the government has been in talks with Mexico about reimplementing it.
Cases being heard in a timely manner, access to counsel, and setting criteria for individuals who aren’t subject to the policy are among of the issues that the US and Mexico are still debating. Mexico’s government has also expressed concerns about the times and places of the returns, according to administration sources.
Since Biden’s loss in court earlier this year, I’ve been curious about the status of this. I’m actually surprised they’re going to do it. Like the Obama administration, I assumed they’d break the court order.
But it’s possible that because Biden and DHS have created such a mess of the border, they applaud the forced policy implementation because they know it works.
I’m curious how Biden will react if the left throws a fit over this. When people get unhappy, he’s been known to cower to the left, as he did with the refugee cap earlier this year. Will he continue to ignore the judges and cave to the left?
