A wise return to Trump’s border policies

The U.S. Supreme Court did President Joe Biden a favor in ordering the reinstatement of the “Remain in Mexico” policy governing asylum-seekers from Central America.

The program, part of former President Donald Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocols, was put in place in 2019 to deal with caravans of migrants who were showing up at the southern border claiming to be refugees from violence and persecution in their home countries.

Before the policy was implemented, asylum applicants were allowed to enter the country and remain in America until the hearing on their claim could be held. That could take months, and many never showed up for the hearings.

Trump’s policy sent the applicants back across the border to wait for adjudication of their claim.

Within seven months, encounters at the border dropped to 36,500 a month from 144,000.

And then Biden took over and immediately scrapped Trump’s immigration policies, including Remain in Mexico. In July, encounters with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border hit 200,000, a 21-year high.

Federal courts have already blocked Biden from unilaterally undoing other Trump immigration provisions, including increased use of deportation and detention and suspension of the DACA program.

In ruling Biden had overreached in suspending Remain in Mexico, a federal district judge in Texas determined the administration knew the policy was effective and had been successfully defended in court previously, and that it was aware of the consequences of scuttling the program.

The legal challenge was brought by the states of Texas and Missouri, which claimed their residents have been harmed by the president’s abandonment of effective efforts to curb illegal immigration.

Biden eliminated the programs on his first day in office for no other reason than that were implemented by Trump.

Almost immediately, the Central American caravans began re-forming and America’s southern border was again swamped by refugees.

Another successful tool used by Trump was to expel illegal border crossers under a public health order known as Title 42, intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Border control agents turned back the migrants rather than apprehending and detaining them.

Biden has kept that program in place, but is not using it nearly as often. In July, 47% of encounters resulted in expulsion, compared with 83% in January.

Biden’s stubborn neglect of the southern border is creating a crisis for the states such as Texas and Arizona that must deal with the impact.

The president’s feeble attempt to off-load responsibility for the situation to Vice President Kamala Harris, who has treated it like a hot potato she doesn’t want landing in her lap, has failed.

Conditions continue to worsen and the president doesn’t have a plan for bringing them under control.

His best option is to return to the Trump plan, which was working.

The courts, in halting Biden’s push to scrap his predecessor’s policies, have given the president an excuse for continuing Trump’s methods without personally embracing them.

Biden should stop further legal action and return to what has worked to maintain a secure and orderly border.