The Biden White House wasn’t using Title 42 authority to turn away unaccompanied minors and family units with young children this past year, which meant that only single adult males were being readily turned away under the pandemic authorities of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the fact that they weren’t using it is telling in and of itself. Additionally, Biden’s DHS has already made the decision to end the Migrant Protection Protocols (“MPP”), also known as the “Remain in Mexico” program. This Trump-era policy fix changed the incentives for migrants who would otherwise benefit from scamming the immigration (more specifically, asylum) system to gain easy access into the U.S. Despite all this, the Biden administration tries to downplay the severity of the situation as merely a “challenge” instead of using the proper term: crisis. Before Trump’s team instituted MPP, any migrant could illegally cross into the U.S. and claim “defensive” or “secondary” asylum. And assuming they passed what’s called the “credible fear test,” they would be let into the U.S. pending a court hearing that would be months or even years away. The chances of being deported for those playing the system in this way were miniscule, and so a surge of migrants occurred in 2018 to 2019. MPP made it so those same would-be “asylum” seekers would have to wait their turn in Mexico instead of on U.S. soil. And
WALLACE: And of the 5,000 that are still in process? MAYORKAS: We will make determinations whether they will be returned to Haiti based on our public health and public interest authorities. WALLACE: So, are we talking about a total of 12,000 or could it be even higher? MAYORKAS: It could – it could be even higher. So more than half of those migrants of Haitian origin who entered illegally onto U.S. soil were in fact allowed to stay in America. That’s exactly the kind of calculus that is driving further illegal crossings, and why the number of apprehensions at the border is going to stay at all-time highs through the end of the year. The total number for 2021 could be close to 2 million illegal immigrants – which would be the highest in two decades and probably ever. ASYLUM LOOPHOLES How have the Biden administration and the Open Borders advocates reacted to this? By making it even more difficult for the Border Patrol to do its job and secure the sovereignty of the southern border. A federal court even ordered the end of Title 42 policy, which allowed Border Patrol to turn away asylum seekers as a health safety measure during the pandemic. While this is unhelpful for border security, its actual impact will be somewhat minimal.
American Consequences
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