DHS to End Remain in Mexico Policy, Title 42 Amendment Blocked from Inflation Bill

In the midst of the worst border crisis in this country’s history, the Department of Homeland Security is ending the Remain in Mexico policy for asylum seekers.

The Trump era policy had asylum seekers remain south of the border in Mexico while their applications were being processed.

The Washington Post has more details in their report on this topic.

“The announcement came after U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk lifted his injunction blocking Biden officials from ending the program, formally known as the “Migrant Protection Protocols” or MPP.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 30 that the Biden administration had the authority to terminate the program, opening a path for DHS to finally bring a close to one of the Trump administration’s most contentious border measures.”

According to the report, asylum seekers will be able to enter the USA the day this ends. Under Trump, this policy sent 70,000 asylum seekers back to Mexico.

In other news, Senate Democrats blocked an amendment in the Inflation Reduction Act that would have required the Biden admin to keep Title 42 in place. The Trump-era policy was implemented during the pandemic and has been key in stopping illegal immigration at the southern border.

Here are more details from a report in Breitbart.

“Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) offered an amendment to the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act — passed on Sunday — that would have required Biden to keep Title 42 in place to help reduce record-breaking illegal immigration levels.

Despite Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Jon Tester (D-MT), Gary Peters (D-MI), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and Chris Coons (D-DE) all previously claiming they opposed ending Title 42, they voted with all other Senate Democrats to block the amendment.”

The Hill has further details on why this amendment failed.

“Minutes before that, however, all Democrats voted against an amendment proposed by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) that was nearly identical to the Tester revision. That proposal called for pulling $1 million in funding from the Affordable Care Act to maintain Title 42.

But because the Lankford amendment was in line with budget rules, it only required 51 votes for passage. If Democrats had supported the measure, it could have been added to the bill, putting final passage of the package in jeopardy.”

Instead of getting serious and crafting policies to stop the border crisis, politicians in Washington are playing political games while things deteriorate even further.

We’re in the midst of a historic border crisis with hundreds of thousands of illegal border encounters every month.

Trump era policies like Remain in Mexico, and Title 42 help border enforcement officials stem the tide and disincentivize illegal border crossings.

The problem with these policies is that they address the symptoms and not the root cause of the problem. The root cause is mass immigration both legal and illegal, and to solve this problem we need a mass reform of the system.

We won’t hold our breath waiting for a politician to step up to the plate to solve this problem, but the border crisis will persist and get worse until that happens.