Remain in Mexico reinstatement will benefit countries, people, former Border Patrol chief says

Rodney Scott, the former chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, said the decision to temporarily end the Remain in Mexico policy came at a grave cost.

Scott, reacting to the news that the Biden administration had been ordered to reinstate the program first instituted by former President Donald Trump, said suspending the policy was a major mistake. He was not surprised to see Biden’s move overturned.

Rodney Scott | US Customs and Border Protection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

“It is critical that your readers understand that the human toll extends well beyond the individual migrant,” he told Houston Daily. “The human toll also includes every death in the U.S. that was caused by fentanyl poising, or an overdose of methamphetamines, heroin or cocaine. The border crisis that we have been experiencing since the Biden administration suspended [Migrant Protection Protocols] and other border security programs resulted in U.S. Border Patrol dramatically reducing patrols and enforcement operations.

“Instead of patrolling the border and tracking down criminals, agents have been reassigned to process and then provide care, feeding, and even transportation services to over 1.6 million aliens this past year,” Scott added. “People need to consider that the U.S. Border Patrol does not exist to protect our physical borders. The U.S. Border Patrol exists to protect the nation, our citizens and our guests by ensuring that we know who, and what, enters our home — our homeland. To succeed at this mission, the agents must be out on the border.”

The Migrant Protection Protocols (MMP) policy mandated that people trying to enter the U.S. remain south of the border while their cases were examined and a final determination is made.

President Joe Biden ended the MPP shortly after taking office. But in August, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo ordered that the program be reinstated. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to overturn the ruling in August.

On Dec. 6, the Biden administration complied, although it said it is pursuing an appeal.

Scott said professionals recognized the danger of ending this program but their warnings went unheeded.

“During the administration transition, several experienced career border security professionals within DHS and Department of Justice advised the administration to keep this program in place and warned the eliminating it indicated during the campaign would undoubtedly create a mass migration,” he said. “Obviously, the administration chose to ignore those recommendations.”

That had a serious impact on Texas and the nation, he said.

“Texas has been forced to absorb a disproportionate impact of the border crisis that the Biden administration created when it shut down MPP,” Scott said. “While the cartels operating in Mexico just south of Texas make millions of dollars from smuggling aliens, their real profit is made from smuggling narcotics.

“The cartels have perfected the use of large groups of asylum-seeking aliens to overwhelm U.S. law enforcement and create large gaps in border security to allow narcotics to easily be smuggled into the U.S.,” he said. “I ask your readers to think about this for just a minute. If you were a migrant trying to get into the U.S. to claim asylum, and you fully planned to seek out and then surrender to the first Border Patrol agent that you could find, why would you wait until after dark to cross the border? 

"I will tell you why," he added. "It is because the cartels control everything that crosses the border from Mexico illegally. They use these humans as shield for other more sinister criminal activity.”

Remain in Mexico has many positive sides to it, Scott noted.

“MPP was and could continue to be a very effective program to enhance border security while ensuring appropriate access to the U.S. asylum system and full due process of law, while all but ending catch and release,” he said. “MPP simply ensured due process and appropriate adjudication of asylum claims without refoulment, and without granting enfettered access to the United States before a judge made a final decision. Short of permanent legislative modifications to immigration law, no other single program has the proven potential to all but eliminate the asylum fraud that overwhelms our immigration system.”

He said the policy also benefited Mexico. Fewer people moved through the country on their way to the border, Scott said.

That reduced their risk, he noted, and also was a negative for cartels, who relied on these people to carry their products. It also meant many people turned around and returned to their native countries.

Immigration at the southern border will be discussed in both the midterm election and in the next presidential contest, Scott predicted.

“I strongly believe that border security should and will be a major issue in the 2022 and 2024 elections,” he said. “National security, and specifically border security in principle, is the same as personal home security.  The safety and security of the people and belongings inside your home is directly dependent upon your ability to control who and what enters your home — and when.”

Scott started with the Border Patrol in 1992 and held numerous positions before former President Donald Trump tapped him to lead the agency in January 2020. In August 2021, he was removed from his post by President Biden. 

Scott has remained an observer and critic of the current administration's policies.