Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday slammed the Biden administration’s “disastrous” decision to formally end a Trump-era policy that pushed illegal immigrants back across the border into Mexico to await their immigration hearings.
Mr. Trump called Mr. Biden “the first American president who doesn’t want America to be a nation at all.”
“The Biden administration’s disastrous decision to formally end the Remain in Mexico policy is proof that their objective is to eliminate the U.S. border entirely and flood the country with so many illegal aliens that every community is overwhelmed,” the former president said.
The Biden administration announced this week it was ending the policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, where illegal immigrants trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico could be returned to Mexico as their cases were heard.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had said that any benefits of maintaining or modifying the program were outweighed by the positives that would come from ending it entirely.
Mr. Trump, along with border patrol agents and other Republicans, disagreed.
The former president called the MPP, also known as “Remain in Mexico,” “one of the most successful border security programs anyone has ever put into effect anywhere.”
“The Biden administration inherited the most secure border in history, and they turned it into the greatest border disaster in history,” Mr. Trump said.
The program had been effectively shut down as of the start of the Biden administration, with no new MPP enrollees allowed, though it remained on the books as an option.
GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday said Mr. Biden was adding “fuel to the fire” of the president’s lackluster border policies by moving to formally end the program.
“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,” the California Republican said.
But Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, said Mr. Trump’s policy put asylum seekers at risk of assault, rape or kidnapping upon their return to Mexico.
“Americans could not continue to ignore or approve this grim reality,” Mr. Durbin said.
• Stephen Dinan contributed to this story.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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