“The fact is that if Joe Biden truly wanted to secure the border, he doesn’t really need a bill… all Biden needs to do is to reimpose every single border policy of the former President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.”

—President Donald J. Trump

 

From the very moment he arrived in the Oval Office, Crooked Joe Biden has actively engineered the worst border crisis in the history of our country. In his first 100 days alone, he issued a staggering 94 executive orders overturning the border policies of the Trump Administration. As a result, more than nine million illegal aliens have invaded our southern border to prey on our people and endanger our communities.

 

Now, in a desperate attempt to evade the massive political liabilities wrought by his open borders agenda, Biden is reportedly going to sign an executive order meant to “stem” the border crisis that he created.

 

But instead of signing meaningless and purely symbolic executive orders that will do nothing to seal our border and protect our communities, what Joe Biden needs to do is put back in place the commonsense and successful border policies of the Trump Administration.

 

Here are ten Trump policies that Joe Biden could re-adopt TODAY to begin to secure our border, protect our citizens, and restore the rule of law in America.

 

1.    END “CATCH AND RELEASE.” As part of a January 2017 executive order, President Trump ended the dangerous policy of “catch and release” for illegal aliens apprehended between the ports of entry, as well as those found inadmissible at ports of entry. The Trump Administration detained illegal aliens claiming asylum at the border and those apprehended by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in American communities. The ending of catch and release—combined with record level deportations—sent a strong deterrence message that illegal aliens should not take the journey north because they will not be allowed into American communities.

 

2.    REIMPOSE “REMAIN IN MEXICO.” As part of that same 2017 executive order, President Trump revived a dormant statute that ordered the Secretary of Homeland Security to ensure that illegal aliens “are returned to the territory from which they came pending a formal removal proceeding.” Two years later, in 2019, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), better known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, after President Trump struck a historic agreement with Mexico ensuring that illegal aliens claiming asylum must wait in Mexico until their immigration court date. Of the more than 71,000 illegal aliens returned to Mexico under MPP, less than 1% (641 aliens) were granted asylum by the end of President Trump’s first term.

 

3.    DEPORT ILLEGAL ALIENS. During his first week in office, President Trump declared through executive order that all illegal aliens were a priority for removal, reversing the dangerous policy of the Obama-Biden administration that exempted most illegal aliens from deportation. As a result, ICE agents were empowered like never before and deported almost 1 million illegal aliens during President Trump’s first term. Removals increased each of President Trump’s first three years, from 226,119 illegal aliens deported in FY 2017 to 256,085 in FY 2018 to 267,258 in FY 2019. Even with the disruptions caused by COVID-19, ICE deported 185,884 illegal aliens in FY 2020—or at a rate 68% higher than the 59,011 illegal aliens removed by the Biden administration in FY 2021. Of the total removals, the Trump Administration deported 526,884 criminal aliens: 127,719 in FY 2017; 145,262 in FY 2018; 150,141 in FY 2019; and 103,762 in FY 2020.

 

4.    REINSTATE TITLE 42. In March 2020, President Trump exercised previously unused authority found in Title 42 of the U.S. Code to require Border Patrol agents to immediately turn away or repatriate all aliens at the border who lack valid travel documents. President Trump’s use of Title 42 effectively sealed the border, denied illegal aliens the opportunity to exploit the asylum system, and apprehensions in April 2020 plummeted to 17,106—the lowest level ever recorded. From March through December 2020, illegal alien border apprehensions averaged around 47,000 per month compared to more than 200,000 illegal aliens per month under the Biden administration’s open borders, mass catch and release scheme.

 

5.    USE TITLE 42 TO CRACK DOWN ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING. President Trump also used Title 42 policy to immediately turn away or repatriate unaccompanied illegal alien children. This policy effectively nullified the loophole in the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act that facilitated the trafficking and smuggling of illegal alien minors. President Trump also executed an agreement between DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services to share information on unaccompanied alien children and to obtain biometric and biographic data for sponsors, confirming familial relationships, and running criminal background checks on all adults residing in the sponsors home for the purpose of immigration and criminal enforcement— effectively ending the exploitative practice of migrant adults recycling children to create fraudulent families as a way to gain entry into the U.S.

 

6.    CANCEL ILLEGAL ALIEN WORK PERMITS. In a stunning betrayal of American workers, Joe Biden has granted millions of work permits to illegal aliens—crushing wages for actual American citizens. This policy allows millions of illegal aliens to take any job, with no wage protections or preferences for American workers and American families—thus even further incentivizing illegal aliens to storm across our southern border. If Joe Biden truly cared about ending the border crisis and improving the livelihoods of American citizens, he would cancel his illegal alien work permits and restrict hiring to American citizens only.

 

7.    SEND TROOPS TO BORDER. President Trump launched the historic Operation Secure Line, which deployed nearly 5,000 troops to the southern border to assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel, including installing razor wire and concertina wire. The U.S. Department of Defense also surged equipment and logistical and medical support. This visionary decision to surge troops to the southern border enhanced the Border Patrol’s ability to impede or deny illegal crossings.

 

8.    GET MEXICO TO HELP. The majority of illegal aliens attempting to cross the U.S. southern border first passed through Mexico—and with the permission of the Mexican government. In response, President Trump leveraged the threat of tariffs and other actions against Mexico if they did not act to secure their own southern border. Consequently, the Mexican government deployed tens of thousands of their own soldiers to secure their border and cut off the pipeline of illegal aliens from Northern Triangle countries.

 

9.    LEVERAGE SAFE THIRD AGREEMENTS. The Immigration and Nationality Act dictates that an alien may not apply for asylum in the U.S. if the alien may be removed, under a “safe third country” agreement, to a country where the alien “would have access to a full and fair procedure for determining a claim to asylum or equivalent temporary protection.” Prior to the Trump Administration, the U.S. only entered into a safe third country agreement with Canada. But in his first term, President Trump entered into three historic safe third country agreements (Asylum Cooperative Agreements) with Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala to stop asylum fraud and disrupt the Mexican cartels and human trafficking networks. Under these agreements, aliens apprehended at the U.S. southern border from the Northern Triangle countries claiming asylum were presented with two options: abandon their fraudulent asylum claim and return home or be removed to one of the other Northern Triangle countries to seek humanitarian relief closer to home.

 

10.FINISH THE WALL. President Trump built more than 450 miles of the most robust and advanced border walls ever constructed. As part of one of his administration’s earliest executive orders, President Trump directed the DHS to “take all appropriate steps to immediately plan, design, and construct a physical wall along the southern border, using appropriate materials and technology to most effectively achieve complete operational control of the southern border.” And when confronted with an obstructionist Congress that failed to appropriate funds necessary to continue building the wall, President Trump issued Presidential Proclamation 9844 declaring a national emergency to reprogram unused Department of Defense funds to construct the sophisticated and effective border wall system. As a result, illegal border crossings plummeted by 87% in the places the wall was built. President Trump had the plans, materials, and infrastructure in place for additional border wall system construction before the Biden administration canceled the contracts and let our southern border exposed to illegal aliens and drug traffickers.

 

For a more complete list of the successful border and immigration policies of the Trump administration that the Biden administration should immediately adopt to secure the border, go here.

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