Rodney Scott, the retired chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, was glad to see a federal court order the Remain in Mexico policy to resume and happy it restarted Monday.
The Department of Homeland Security resumed the Migrant Protection Protocols at the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez port of entry. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Amarillo ordered the resumption in August, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block the order.
Scott said it was an effective program that accomplished its goals. He is unsure why the program was halted.
“Why the Biden administration choose to terminate the very successful Migrant Protection Protocols is a question that should be directed to the White House, or Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas,” Scott told Austin Journal. "In my professional assessment, MPP was an extremely effective program that was making America safer while simultaneously improving the efficiency of legitimate international trade and travel through our ports of entry.”
“The purpose and application of MPP was simple; ensure due process and appropriate adjudication of asylum claims without refoulment, but before granting enfettered access to the United States,” he said. “By ensuring that, primarily, only those aliens who had an adjudicated legitimate asylum claim were released into the U.S., illegal entries and migrants arriving at ports of entry without any legal U.S. immigration documents plummeted dramatically. MPP reduced fraudulent asylum claims dramatically.
"This allowed U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel to more effectively deploy limited resources to mitigate transnational criminal organizations and to facilitate to legitimate international trade and travel,” he added.
Scott said Texas has received the lion’s share of attention, but the entire country was impacted by Biden’s decision.
“While the visible impacts disproportionality falls on Texas and other border states, the impacts of this border crisis are a threat to every state, city and town across the United States,” Scott said. “The actual international border is simply a transit point. It is not a destination!”
He said this is not merely a political discussion and a policy debate. It has deeply affected thousands of lives.
“The human toll of shutting down MPP has been exorbitant and must be viewed holistically,” Scott said. “The most obvious human toll is seen in the videos that show hundreds of thousands of migrants placing their lives in the hands of smugglers and making the dangerous journey from their homes to the U.S.-Mexico border.”
Scott said the policy worked, adding that reinstating it is a positive step for national security and to relieve some of the suffering at the border, in his view.
“Eliminating, or at least significantly reducing the fraudulent asylum claims significantly increases the likelihood that only those aliens who have an adjudicated legitimate asylum claim are released into the U.S.,” he said. “Maintaining the integrity of our system deters illegal entries and reduces the volume of migrants arriving at ports of entry without any legal U.S. immigration documents or a valid claim. This allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel to more effectively deploy limited resources to mitigate transnational criminal organizations and to facilitate to legitimate international trade and travel.”
The protocols also resulted in a significant reduction in illegal migration transiting through Mexico, Scott said.
“This reduced the risk to migrant populations and removed a funding source from the cartels,” he said. “Furthermore, once migrants who were enrolled in MPP realized they would not be granted access into the United States until after their asylum case was adjudicated, and that economic migration did not meet the criteria, many returned to their home countries. This resulted in a significant decrease in migrant populations in border cities within Mexico.”
Scott was with the Border Patrol for 29 years. President Donald Trump named him chief in January 2020. This past August, President Biden told him he needed to “resign, retire or relocate,” Scott said.
He said immigration at the border will remain a hot topic and deserves to be addressed in upcoming campaigns.
“If we can’t control who and what enters our home, our nation, then we have no real security,” Scott said. “I believe this is an important issue for all Americans to consider.”