Biden Blamed by Own Ex-Border Chief for Soaring Asylum Cases, Record Immigration Court Backlog

The Biden administration is to blame for soaring asylum cases that have created a record years-long backlog in U.S. immigration courts, according to President Joe Biden’s own former Border Patrol chief.

“Several factors have contributed to this backlog, but the massive increase that we’re seeing today can be directly attributed to the Biden administration’s border and immigration policies,” said Rodney Scott, who headed the Border Patrol in both the Trump and Biden administrations.

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Biden Admin Scraps Another Trump-Era Policy

Illegal Border Crossers

The Biden administration has ended a program used to expel migrants to Mexico as they await immigration proceedings, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement Monday.

The Trump-era policy, which is also known as “Remain in Mexico,” was long fought in the courts after the Texas attorney general sued the Biden administration for ending the program.

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Biden Administration Is Implementing Trump’s Remain in Mexico Policy After Fighting It

The Biden administration is returning migrants in small numbers to Mexico as it rolls out the resumption of the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy, also known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), it fought for months to end.

The policy requires border officials to return asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while waiting for immigration court hearings.

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Biden Administration Reportedly Plans to Restart Trump-Era ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy

The Biden administration is set to restart the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy following a court order, according to a Biden administration official.

The policy, which is also known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), started in Dec. 2018 to keep asylum seekers in Mexico while they awaited immigration court proceedings. President Joe Biden revoked the policy soon after taking office.

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Immigration Attorneys Refuse to Be ‘Complicit’ in Biden’s Restarted Trump-Era Migrant Removal Program

Some immigration attorneys are refusing to be “complicit” in former President Donald Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocols that were reinstated by the Biden administration and expected to go into effect as early as mid-November, BuzzFeed News reported Thursday.

The attorneys said they won’t offer pro bono legal assistance to migrants enrolled in Trump’s Remain in Mexico program because of the alleged dangers and rights violations migrants are subjected to, according to BuzzFeed. Immigration advocacy groups said they will keep assisting migrants at the southern border, but worry the reinstatement of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) will result in more people than attorneys can effectively represent.

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Biden Admin Rescinds ‘Remain in Mexico’ Again Despite Court Ruling

The Biden administration said Friday that it intends to repeal former President Donald Trump’s “Remain In Mexico” policy after a federal judge denied its first attempt, the Department of Homeland Security announced in a statement.

President Joe Biden had originally suspended the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program, mandating non-Mexican migrants wait in Mexico until their immigration court date in the U.S., in June. However, a Texas federal judge ruled in August he was violating federal law in the way he went about ending it.

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Catholic Charities Official Invites Biden to Witness Border Crisis in Person

Sister Pimentel

Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas invited President Joe Biden to witness the migrant crisis for what would be his first trip to the southern border as president.

Thousands of migrants resorted to staying in dangerous tent cities in Mexican border towns after the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) were implemented in 2019 and the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s efforts to repeal the policy, Catholic Charities Executive Director Norma Pimentel said in an op-ed Monday for The Washington Post.

Pimentel asked Biden to visit the Rio Grande Valley and negotiate with Mexican officials to secure more humane conditions for the migrants. She appealed to the president’s Catholic faith to provide humanitarian assistance to the migrants.

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Migrants Form Tent Community in Mexico Waiting for Biden to Open the Border

Nearly 200 tents fill a plaza near the busiest port for border crossings in Tijuana, Mexico, in less than a month as migrants hope the Biden administration will allow entry into the U.S., the Associated Press reported Friday.

Around 1,500 migrants receive meals from a canopy-covered kitchen, kids play sports and volunteer security guards patrol the camp wearing orange jackets, the AP reported. Some pay to shower at a nearby hotel or to use the restroom at the pharmacy and travel agency.

“The camp is a center for disinformation,” a H

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Trump Administration Extends Delay of Court Hearings for Asylum Seekers

The Trump administration, citing continuing complications brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, is extending a delay of Migrant Protection Protocol hearings for asylum seekers in Mexico.

Foreign nationals under Migrant Protection Protocols, a program that holds asylum seekers in Mexico for the duration of their court proceedings, will have to wait longer before they can make their case before an immigration judge. All hearings scheduled through May 1 will be postponed, according to a statement by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) on Wednesday.

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