President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks at the 450th mile of the new border wall Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021, near the Texas Mexico border. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
Recently former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reminded readers that the Trump administration had made great strides in controlling the border, and that when Joe Biden came to the White House, he threw it all away. Pompeo tweeted:
I write in Never Give an Inch about how we secured the border. It wasn’t easy. We ruffled some feathers. But it worked.
The Biden Administration took our work and threw it out, leading to today’s catastrophe.
Get the full story at https://t.co/eQ6tPwCDwF. pic.twitter.com/2It2CBKmHA
— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) May 15, 2023
In Spectator World, Amber Athey goes into further detail on how Biden destroyed Trump’s border progress, writing:
Under Trump, there were major risks associated with this approach thanks to his administration’s re-engineering of asylum policy. Trump immigration officials sought to hold as many migrants in detention centers as possible until their claims were adjudicated. If their asylum claims were found to be illegitimate, they were subject to deportation and were barred from attempting re-entry for five years, lest they face criminal prosecution.
In addition, the Trump administration sought expedited removal for asylum seekers who did not present themselves at ports of entry or declare asylum in a safe third country that they may have passed through on their way to the US. Many asylum seekers were also sent to “Remain in Mexico” while their claims were adjudicated.
Trump said these policies were necessary to dissuade migrants from taking advantage of the asylum system and catch-and-release policies; indeed, Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) data found that the denial rate of asylum claims in fiscal year 2020 was at a stunning 72 percent. Data from 2018 shows that nearly 40 percent of migrants from the Northern Triangle countries (Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras) did not show up to their court dates despite claiming “credible fear” — the first hurdle to cross when seeking asylum — when crossing the border.
But the Biden administration reversed many of these asylum-related policies and, outside of Title 42, has mostly refused to utilize expedited removals and deportations to mitigate abuse of the asylum system.
“Between safe third country agreements, Title 42, quicker adjudications of immigration cases and other policies, the Trump administration really did have the wheels turning in the right direction for the first time in our modern history as a country,” Hamilton said. “The Biden administration took it and burned it all to the ground.
“It brings us to this place today where people realize that they’re not going to be prevented from coming to the country or rapidly expelled. And instead, all they have to do is set foot on American soil, lodge some claim, and they’ll be able to stay here and be released into the United States.”
Read more here.
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