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10.20.2020 0

Supreme Court to weigh in on Trump’s border security actions

By Catherine Mortensen

This week the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will consider two cases involving the Trump administration’s border security programs. One of the cases challenges the administration’s use of defense funding to help pay for the wall along the southern border, the other case involves “Migrant Protection Protocols” – the so-called “Remain in Mexico” or MPP  program – for non-Mexican asylum-seekers, mostly coming from Central America. Though it will likely be months before the court announces any decisions, the announcement puts illegal immigration and border security back in the news.

Unlike in 2016, immigration has not been a driving issue in the 2020 presidential race.

“That’s because President Trump’s policies have largely solved the problem of illegal immigration,” explained Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government. “Trump’s decisive actions to protect our borders are working, and as a result, the media ignores the issue. But the American people will not forget that Trump kept his promise to build the wall.”

On Monday, Acting Commission of the U.S Customs and Border Protection , Mark Morgan, tweeted this video update of the wall, “371 miles of new border wall system. Every new mile leads to a:Decrease in drug & human smuggling…  More secure border… Safer country.”

According to the newly-released Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency’s Fiscal Year 2020 report,  encounters with illegal border crossers decreased 53 percent in Fiscal Year 2020 with 458,088 people encountered, down from 977,509 in Fiscal Year 2019.

On Monday, on the  Chosen Generation Radio, Morgan told host Pastor Greg Young that last year federal court decisions forced the CBP released 230,000 individuals into this country “right to bus stops, sometimes within hours of them entering the country.”

But in 2020, catch-and-release is finally solved, with Morgan reporting, “This year that number is down to 1,000.”  He explained that the Trump administration’s new policies have allowed them make these dramatic improvements. He said the other factor is the improved relationship the U.S. has with Mexico and the so-called Triangle Countries of Central America.

“They are stronger than they’ve ever been,” Morgan said. “We’ve approached it as a regional crisis.” He praised the MPP program, calling it a “game-changer” because it allows immigrants to “remain in Mexico as they go through the asylum process… we’re not housing them and we’re not releasing them into the United States. And we know that when we release them into the U.S., we never hear from them again. They don’t show up for their hearings and they abscond and they stay here illegally. That’s why this has been a game changer. Mexico has been a true partner with that.”

Morgan also emphasized the Trump administration’s successful efforts to keep families together through the immigration process and protect victims of human trafficking. “This is a horrendous crime happening every single day. Sometimes the victims don’t even know they are being trafficked until after the come across the border, and the cartels start to exploit them through the sex industry.”

Biden’s Immigration Policies

Not only would Trump’s border wall come to an end if Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden defeats him in November, Biden would quickly move to roll back many of Trump’s executive orders and actions on immigration, according to the candidate and the party platform.

“There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration, No. 1,” Biden told Black and Hispanic journalists during a press briefing in early August.

According to the campaign website for Biden and his vice presidential running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, within their first 100 days after taking office, Biden would revoke Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build the border wall, rescind various travel and asylum bans, and end the “Remain in Mexico” and “metering” border policies that prevent migrants seeking asylum from entering the United States.

A Biden administration would also seek to reinstate and extend protections for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children and who have been protected under the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program. It would also grant these so-called “Dreamers” access to federal student loans. And incredibly, in August of this year Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris reasserted her support for providing taxpayer funded health care for illegals.

Biden has promised to raise the current refugee ceiling from 18,000, a historic low, to 125,000, which would surpass even Obama-era levels.

All of which makes these Supreme Court decisions — with the addition of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the bench this month — all the more important.

“I hope these two court cases will remind Americans what is at stake in this election,” added Manning. “We have made a lot of progress under Trump’s policies toward securing our borders. Legal immigration is important and necessary, but illegal immigration hurts those who are trying to follow our nation’s laws. Let’s not go back to the bad old days of Obama-Biden when illegal immigrants were allowed to break our laws without consequence.”

Catherine Mortensen is Vice President of Communications at Americans for Limited Government.

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