President Joe Biden stopped the construction of border wall at the United States-Mexico border and suspended a crucial anti-fraud initiative that effectively helped eliminate the Catch and Release program.
In an executive order this week, Biden halted all construction of border wall — 450 miles of which was authorized and built by President Trump’s administration between 2017 and 2020. The wall, Biden claims, “is not a serious policy solution” and “is a waste of money.”
Likewise, the order ended Trump’s national emergency at the southern border:
I have determined that the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border in Proclamation 9844 of February 15, 2019 (Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States), was unwarranted. It shall be the policy of my Administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall. [Emphasis added]
Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Alejandro Mayorkas, refused to say whether he would tear down existing border wall during a confirmation hearing this week.
Most significantly, as promised, Biden has suspended the legal wall erected by Trump known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy that drastically cut asylum fraud and ensured border crossers were not released into the interior of the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials announced the suspension of Remain in Mexico, noting the thousands of migrants still in the program must stay in Mexico, but that no future migrants must return there while awaiting asylum.
“The Department will cease adding individuals into the program,” the DHS statement reads. “However, current COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] non-essential travel restrictions, both at the border and in the region, remain in place at this time. All current MPP [Migrant Protection Protocols] participants should remain where they are, pending further official information from U.S. government officials.”
Biden’s actions to relax border controls and interior immigration enforcement comes just as thousands of migrants in a caravan from Central America are headed to the U.S.-Mexico border. Likewise, illegal immigration levels have already started ticking up over the last three months.
Additionally, as part of an executive order, Biden has halted most deportations of illegal aliens for at least 100 days. The policy was cited by one migrant in the caravan as the reason he is making the journey to rush the southern border.
“Biden, he’s going to help all of us,” the caravan migrant told CNN. “He’s given us 100 days to get to the U.S. and give us legal [unintelligible] paper so we can get a better life for our kids and family.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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