Former President Donald Trump is blasting President Joe Biden’s ending the “Remain in Mexico” program that helped massively cut asylum fraud, stating that he is facilitating the “greatest border disaster in history.”
Immediately after taking office, Biden suspended the Remain in Mexico program, nearly two years after it was implemented by the Trump administration to reduce asylum fraud. Days later, Biden instructed top Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials to strategize a plan that would release at least 25,600 migrants enrolled in the program into the U.S. interior.
This week, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the official end of Remain in Mexico. As of May 25, the Biden administration has released about 11,200 migrants enrolled in the program into the U.S. interior and provided work permits so they can take American jobs.
In a statement on Wednesday, Trump slammed Biden for the move:
Remain in Mexico, also known as MPP (Migrant Protection Protocols), was not only a historic foreign policy triumph but one of the most successful border security programs anyone has ever put into effect anywhere. Along with our Central America Safe Third agreements, asylum reforms, and expedited removal procedures we drove border numbers to record lows and we ENDED the horrendous practice known as Catch-and-Release. [Emphasis added]
No American President had ever done more to defend the border and safeguard the whole immigration system. [Emphasis added]
The Biden administration inherited the most secure border in history, and they turned it into the greatest border disaster in history. Our border is now run by cartels, criminals, and coyotes. Illegal immigrants, gang members, and lethal drugs are pouring across like never before. Not only are illegal immigrants being caught and released, they are being put up in hotels at taxpayer expense. [Emphasis added]
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) echoed Trump’s statement, blaming Biden’s anti-enforcement agenda for creating “the worst humanitarian, national security, and public health crisis ever seen at our southern border.” It went on:
This decision is the latest in a long line of misguided policies from President Biden and the Democrats, and it’s imperative that the Biden administration immediately reverses this irresponsible decision and reinstates the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy before the crisis gets even worse.
Neither of the statements mentioned the impact of Biden’s anti-enforcement agenda on the wages, jobs, and economic well-being of America’s working and lower-middle class who are the most likely to compete against illegal aliens for American jobs.
Particularly, Remain in Mexico migrants released into the U.S. interior are being provided with one-year work permits whereby they can hold American jobs while awaiting their asylum hearings.
At the same time, about 16.4 million Americans remain jobless and another 5.2 million are underemployed, but all want full-time work with good wages and competitive benefits.
To date, of the more than 71,000 Remain in Mexico asylum cases, less than one percent have been found to have a legitimate asylum claim to stay in the U.S. More than 45 percent of migrants enrolled in Remain in Mexico were issued a deportation order and about 41 percent are still awaiting an outcome in their case.
At the current pace, analysis projects about 1.2 million illegal aliens are expected to be encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of the year. This does not include the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who successfully cross into the U.S., undetected.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.