Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) says there is “nothing compassionate” about President Joe Biden’s open borders initiatives as tens of thousands of foreign nationals attempt to make their way to the United States-Mexico border hoping to be released into the interior of the country.
On Friday, as Breitbart News reported, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) started releasing the first group of about 25,600 migrants who have been living in Mexico while they wait for their asylum claims to be adjudicated.
The move came after Biden ended the “Remain in Mexico” policy, officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, which sought to disincentivize migrants from taking the often deadly journey from Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border by preventing their release into the interior of the country until after they were found to have a legitimate asylum claim.
Rubio, in a statement, said the Biden administration’s policies on immigration that have effectively opened the southern border to those claiming asylum is cruel and chaotic.
“By ending the Migrant Protection Protocols, the Biden Administration is sending yet another signal that it is okay to come to this country unlawfully,” Rubio said:
I have tremendous compassion for the unimaginable conditions in which people live throughout our hemisphere, but there is nothing compassionate about President Biden’s approach. The result will be more chaos at our border, more lives exploited by evil human traffickers, and more illegal immigration. [Emphasis added]
Remain in Mexico had proven remarkably effective in terms of cutting asylum fraud and thus disincentivizing illegal immigration. To date, of the more than 71,000 asylum cases under the Remain in Mexico program, less than one percent of migrants were found to have a legitimate asylum claim.
Aside from his ending Remain in Mexico, Biden also canceled a series of cooperative asylum agreements that were in place with Central America. The agreements allowed federal immigration officials to quickly return migrants to their native countries when they had passed through a country with a robust asylum process in favor of traveling to the U.S.
Already, this year, nearly 40 migrants have died on their journey to the southern border. Last year, nearly 500 migrants died while trying to cross the border, including almost 50 women and children, according to the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrant Project.
Biden’s open borders initiatives come as illegal immigration is surging.
In January, border apprehensions increased nearly 160 percent compared to the same time last year. More than 75,000 border crossers were apprehended last month, which is the highest number of border crossers in the month of January since 2006. Thousands more likely entered the U.S. illegally, undetected by federal immigration officials.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.