According to reports, some White House officials considered the Supreme Court ruling last week confirming the Trump-era renaissance policy in Mexico to be an opportunity to slow the pace of the president’s immigration changes. They say they feared they were causing the crisis at the border.
Many of them, according to the New York Times, had already been thinking about restarting former President Donald Trump’s policy in a narrow way to curb the tide of migrants.
Officials saw the judges’ decision as a way to give Biden political coverage to change his predecessor’s immigration policy without angering Democrats who took stock of those programs over the past four years.
The Ditching the Remain program in Mexico was one of several Trump immigration programs that Biden reversed or backtracked in the early days of his administration, and which critics argued acted as a welcome invitation to migrants from Mexico and Central American countries.
This year there have been more than a million illegal border crossings, breaking records month by month.
“They are lagging behind in a corner of their broader immigration agenda,” Doris Meissner, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1993 to 2000, told the Times. “The only tools available in the short term are the application more or less pure “.
Biden officials are also concerned about the implications of the out-of-control border situation in next fall’s midterm elections.
“This desire to reverse Trump’s policies and do so quickly has landed the Biden administration in this situation, which was not unpredictable and is very sad to see,” said Alan Bersin, who served as Customs Commissioner. and Border Protection to the Obama administration, he told the Times.
The administration is reflecting on the renewal of the “Stay in Mexico” policy to allow a smaller number of asylum-seeking immigrants to wait in Mexico as their cases are being processed in the courts and provide them with better conditions. of life and access to lawyers, Politico reported on Monday.
The White House is discussing policy change with Mexico, which some call “Remain in Mexico,” to make sure it complies with the Supreme Court ruling and stays true to Biden’s campaign commitment to end the “inhuman” program. , who tried to do so after taking office on 20 January.
The Supreme Court upheld the order of a federal judge demanding that the policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols program, be reinstated.
The possibility that the politics of the remnant in Mexico may be resurrected makes some immigration advocates angry with Biden for having resorted to his word to make the process more humane.
“One of his campaign promises was to end MPP. He did. He should stand by,” Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Center for Immigration Law, told Politico. “The answer is not simply find a smoother, friendlier MPP 2.0. It flies completely ahead of its promise. “
The Department of Homeland Security said it disagrees with the court ruling and will appeal it.
“While the appeals process continues, DHS will comply with the order in good faith,” it said in a statement.
“DHS remains committed to building a secure, orderly and humane immigration system that complies with our laws and values,” he added.
Changes in immigration policy have left migrants uncertain about what to expect at the border.
“The most frustrating part of the last eight months has been the constant change of policies and situations at the border, especially for asylum seekers because they are on the other side thinking that …” if we wait, Biden will end up opening go up the ports of entry and let us in, ”Robyn Barnard, Human Rights First’s main advocate for refugee protection, told Politico.