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The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that it reinstated its Remain in Mexico policy on President Donald Trump’s second day in office.
The policy, officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), requires certain individuals to remain in Mexico until legally approved to enter the United States.
“Between Jan. 20, 2021, and Oct. 29, 2021, Acting Secretary David Pekoske, and later Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, repeatedly attempted to suspend or terminate the MPP Policy,” a DHS statement noted.
“Following a series of legal actions, Secretary Mayorkas’s final attempt to terminate the MPP Policy was stayed by a federal court…. The Department of Justice, seven months after that stay was entered, voluntarily dismissed the federal government’s appeal, acquiescing to keeping the MPP Policy in effect for the foreseeable future,” it continued.
The statement explained that the situation has now changed and the policy is being put back into place.
“The situation at the border has changed and the facts on the ground are favorable to resuming implementation of the 2019 MPP Policy,” the statement concluded.
The federal agency also ended the use of the CBP One app, a mobile app that allowed immigrants to apply for entry to the U.S.
“The Biden-Harris Administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants to enter our country,” the DHS said. “This was all stopped on day one of the Trump Administration. This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of looking at migrants on a case-by-case basis.”
The moves are part of several executive orders signed by Trump on his first day in office to deal with the border, including an action called “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion.”
“By the power vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, I have determined that the current situation at the southern border qualifies as an invasion under Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution of the United States,” the order stated.
“Accordingly, I am issuing this Proclamation based on my express and inherent powers in Article II of the Constitution of the United States, and in faithful execution of the immigration laws passed by the Congress, and suspending the physical entry of aliens involved in an invasion into the United States across the southern border until I determine that the invasion has concluded,” it added.