Former President Donald Trump, according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, is to blame for the growing crisis at the US-Mexico border, claiming that the previous administration’s immigration system disruptions are the reason why holding facilities are being overwhelmed by an influx of unaccompanied minors.

Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security, is accompanied by White House Press Secretary… [+] Jen Psaki, left, talks at a White House press conference on Monday, March 1, 2021.
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Mayorkas stated on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday morning, as have other Democrats recently, that the Biden administration is having trouble dealing with the migrant influx because the previous administration “dismantled” the “entire system.”

“Both Republican and Democratic administrations had systems in place that were ripped down during the Trump administration,” Mayorkas added, citing this as the basis for the “severe” border “problem.”

Trump took extraordinary moves throughout his presidency, reducing legal immigration pathways, shutting off regional funding, and imposing Title 42 on asylum seekers and refugees (an order he implemented, citing the Covid-19 pandemic).

According to Mayorkas, these policies have resulted in the influx of tens of thousands of asylum seekers, as well as facilities that are woefully unprepared to process migrants. Mayorkas previously claimed that President Biden must “rebuild the entire system, including the policies and procedures required to administer the long-ago passed asylum laws.”

Since April 2020, when Biden assumed office, there has been a continuous increase in border interactions, however the number surged dramatically—by 61 percent—from January to February (Biden began implementing his immigration agenda on his first day in office).

Republicans, meanwhile, are portraying the escalating humanitarian crisis as a result of Biden’s overly lenient policies, which have included quickly reversing many of Trump’s major immigration initiatives—and, arguing for a more humane approach, allowing unaccompanied minors to enter the United States.

While critics claim that the Biden administration should not have implemented policies it wasn’t prepared to carry out, top Biden officials argue that they are doing their best to prioritize their principles within a shattered framework.

“We’re rebuilding the orderly systems that the Trump administration tore down to avoid the need for these children to actually take the perilous journey,” Mayorkas said, adding that the administration is working on partnerships to build in-country processing centers “to avoid the need for these children to take the perilous journey.”
Experts have pointed out that a variety of factors influence migratory flows, making it impossible to pin spikes on Biden’s policy. The New York Times quoted Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel for the American Immigration Council, as saying, “The push variables are at their greatest they’ve been in quite some time,” citing heightened insecurity in Central America as a result of Covid-19 and destructive hurricanes.
The number of migrants captured at the southwest border is expected to hit a two-decade high. Thousands of migrants have been held in border protection custody for longer than the legal maximum of three days, and the Biden administration is trying to deal with them. Despite remaining silent on some of the Trump administration’s more problematic initiatives, Republicans have seized on the issue and labeled it the first “crisis” of Biden’s presidency.
“ICE secures hotel rooms to house growing number of migrant families,” according to a report. (Axios)
“In One Way, Trump May Have Forever Changed Immigration” (Politico) Continue reading