From the president’s handling of Afghanistan to the economy, there are various reasons Biden’s overall job approval continues to slump, with only 42.8% of Americans approving of his performance as of October 20.
Approval of Biden’s immigration oversight is even worse, plummeting to 32.1% in average polling data taken from Sept. 15 to Oct. 18 (compiled from FOX News, Politico/Morning Consult, Grinnell/Selzer, Quinnipiac, The Hill/Harris, Economist/YouGov and Harvard-Harris).
Biden’s attempt at immigration reform has centered on tearing down Trump-era policies, which has included halting construction on the border wall and taking special aim at the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also referred to as “Remain in Mexico”.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the MPP “are a U.S. Government action whereby certain foreign individuals entering or seeking admission to the U.S. from Mexico – illegally or without proper documentation – may be returned to Mexico and wait outside of the U.S. for the duration of their immigration proceedings, where Mexico will provide them with all appropriate humanitarian protections for the duration of their stay.”
The policy was implemented in January of 2019 and reviewed by the DHS in October of 2019. The assessment found the “MPP has demonstrated operational effectiveness” and that over the first nine months following its implementation, “DHS has returned more than 55,000 aliens to Mexico under MPP. MPP has been an indispensable tool in addressing the ongoing crisis at the southern border and restoring integrity to the immigration system.”
Regardless of the favorable findings by the DHS, Biden took to social media to blast the MPP during his campaign, tweeting, “Donald Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy is dangerous, inhumane, and goes against everything we stand for as a nation of immigrants. My administration will end it.”
He made good on his promise to unlawfully suspend the successful policy early in his term, resulting in lawsuits from both Texas and Maine. The hearings concluded in August, with U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk finding that the federal government “failed to consider several critical factors, including the benefits of the remain in Mexico policy” and ruling the Biden administration to “enforce and implement MPP in good faith until such a time as it has been lawfully rescinded in compliance with the [Administrative Procedure Act] APA”.
Unfortunately, the injunction did not come soon enough to blunt the effects of Biden’s hasty attempts at immigration reform, which have resulted in one of the worst border crises the United States has ever experienced.
During the 2021 fiscal year, which ended in September, the U.S. Border Patrol detained more than 1.7 million migrants on the southern border — the highest total ever recorded — yet just short of completely embarrassing Biden’s campaign goal to “make it better, not worse”, and to not move too quickly in reversing Trump’s policies — in order to avoid ending up with “2 million people on our border.”