The Biden administration on Tuesday formally ended a Trump-era immigration policy that forced asylum seekers to remain in Mexico for hearings in US immigration court.
A seven-page memorandum by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas marked the end of the ‘Migrant Protection Protocols,’ which returned approximately 70,000 asylum seekers to Mexico from January 2019 until it was halted on President Joe Biden’s first day in office two years ago.
The move came the same day as the Biden administration marked the first day of National Immigrant Heritage Month by asking Congress to pass the US Citizenship Act of 2021, which Joe Biden pitched his first day in office, providing a way for an estimated 11 million undocumented people to legally stay in the US.
A White House proclamation read that the plan was to provide a pathway to lawful permanent residency and citizenship for those undocumented immigrants, including Dreamers, people with Temporary Protected Status, farmworkers, and other essential workers who contribute to the Nation every day.
The White House memorandum further noted that it was an especially difficult period thanks to the COVID 19 pandemic and the all too familiar demonisation of immigrants, with Joe Biden urging Americans to recommit themselves to their values as a welcoming nation.
Joe Biden’s changes to Donald Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ were a foregone conclusion, as Joe Biden had pledged as a competitor to end the policy, but the president left a window open by ordering a review before closing it down permanently.
Mayorkas said keeping the policy intact or changing it would not be consistent with the Administration’s vision and values and would be a poor use of the Department’s resources, and he said that the costs would far exceed any benefits.
The policy coincided with a sharp decline of asylum seekers at the border, but critics noted that people were hindered by violent conditions in Mexico, lack of access to lawyers and difficulty making it to court.
Mayorkas recognised those concerns by noting the extraordinary rate of rejected claims for failing to appear in court and the shortage of housing, income and safety in Mexico.
Since February 19, approximately 11,200 people with active cases have been allowed to return to the United States to wait for a decision, a process that can take years in the backlogged court system, and the administration has yet to say if tens of thousands more whose cases were either rejected or refused will get another opportunity.
It must be a dire situation that the Mexican’s are escaping from because why would anyone want to go to America? Land of the dumb, home of mass shootings, obesity and COVID.
Joe Biden and the Democrats want to open borders, as long as they’re shielded by fences and National Guard Troops, and the situation is going to continue to get worse because now every illegal, gang member and criminal will hurry to take advantage of Joe Biden’s immigration policies, or lack of to cross the southern border, fearing it will be closed again, and which country is Joe Biden actually working for?
Of course, numerous nations were built on immigrants and that’s great, but does the US have jobs to support those people? Or are they being sponsored? – so many questions, and it looks like Joe Biden is winning the most awful President prize in the history of America right now.
However, it’s amazing that 81 million people voted for him, but nobody likes what he’s doing.
Most of these immigrants pick food on the farming fields, build houses all over the country and work in service industries to contribute to society in jobs that most American’s won’t do.
Should the US focus on immigrants when jobs could be going to desperate Americans, or would American’s even work such servile jobs that immigrants are prepared to do for less money and more hours?
Or are Americans just lazy, and get paid way too much money in unemployment that staying at home is way more attractive? And are immigrants just the great replacement?
