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EXCLUSIVE: Republicans on the House Oversight Committee accuse the Biden administration of working ‘actively’ to sabotage the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy and allow the release of illegal immigrants to the United States, after conducting multiple discussions with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the border.
Rep. Ranking Member James Comer, R-Ky., Led several GOP members to send a letter Wednesday to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas raising concerns that the administration fails to enforce Migrant Protection Protocols (MPPs), commonly referred to as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which allows the United States to send migrants back across the border to wait immigration hearings.
A federal court ruled in 2021 that the administration must keep the policy in place “in good faith” because it violated the Administrative Procedure Act by deciding to terminate the protocol.
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“Despite a federal court order to work in good faith to reenforce the MPP, we learned on a recent trip to the southern border that Border Patrol agents in several areas are questioning the commitment of the DHS to full re-enforcement,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter. to Mayorkas exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital.
House Oversight Republicans request MPP information from DHS.
(FoxNews)
“This raises questions about whether DHS policymakers in the Biden administration and the White House are actively working to sabotage the MPP to facilitate the release of even more illegal cross-border commuters to the United States,” the officials continued. republicans.
The Republicans recently traveled to the border and met with CBP officials who told them that the Biden administration’s “new requirements” on the MPP “make it useless in their area.”
“Officers are speculating that the inside release is the real intention of Biden administration officials, not a flaw in the process. If true, these reports reveal gross mismanagement and intentional backlash to our system. of public order by political appointees in the Biden administration.”
House Minority Leader leading the GOP delegation meeting with Border Patrol in Eagle Pass, Texas.
(Fox News’ Bill Melugin)
“A senior CBP official told us they were limited to 10 arbitrary MPP registrations per day in an area, and the additional bureaucratic requirements increased the average registration processing time from 1.5 hours to over 8 hours. per migrant,” the lawmakers wrote. .
They also point out that there were 489 MPP registrations in February 2022 despite more than 158,000 illegal crossings across the border in the same month.
Representatives Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, Yvette Herrel, RN.M., Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., Pete Sessions, R-Texas, Byron Donalds, RN.Y., and Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, met joined with Comer to demand documents between DHS and CBP officials on the MPP program, enrollment statistics, and other communications between the relevant agencies.
The Remain in Mexico case is currently before the Supreme Court, which held oral arguments this week Tuesday on whether the Biden administration can properly dispose of the policies of the former Trump administration.
Republican congressmen said they could see cartels and smugglers sending people across the Rio Grande before their eyes on a coded congressional trip to the border.
(House Oversight Committee Republicans)
“If Mexico is the waiting room, it discourages these cartels from moving the $100 million a week of human trafficking that border law enforcement has told us is really happening” , Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt told Fox News Digital after closing arguments. .
The Biden administration is also in the process of ending the Title 42 public health order that allowed the expired deportation of migrants due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayorkas is set to testify before the DHS Appropriations Subcommittee and the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, primarily on Title 42 and the MPP.
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Title 42 is due to expire on May 23, despite pushback from Democrats and Republicans, who fear it could lead to an unsustainable stampede at the Mexico-US border.
DHS did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the letter.
