Washington D.C. – In the wake of today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling staying a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals injunction that would have impeded the Trump administration use of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) Vice President for Federal Affairs John Hostettler underscored the critical role MPP has played in averting a chaotic collapse of security along the U.S. southwest border.
“The mounting crisis we were experiencing last year along our southern border would have continued unabated had it not been for the Trump administration’s implementation of effective deterrent measures, and the Migrant Protection Protocols were chief among them,” said Hostettler, who is also a former Chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims.
Hostettler voiced TPPF’s strong support of the Trump administration policy also known as “Remain in Mexico” as the court challenge threatened the program. “At the Texas Public Policy Foundation, we witnessed firsthand just how close the U.S. border security system came to a catastrophic collapse, and it’s the main reason we made border security the foundation of our new Right On Immigration initiative,” Hostettler emphasized.
“The reality is that before MPP, hundreds of thousands of people from Central America and elsewhere overwhelmed the capacities of federal border authorities and detention facilities, and gained access into the United States simply by claiming a credible fear of political persecution, even though the vast majority of them lacked a valid claim for asylum,” said Hostettler. “Since the implementation of the MPP, these people and their smugglers now know that claiming a credible fear no longer results in being released into the United States, and that is what has led to the major decline we have seen in apprehensions at the border,” he added.
“No other measure has made more of a difference in stemming chaos at the border,” concluded Hostettler, who noted that in addition to the Supreme Court’s latest ruling on MPP, the Trump administration has consistently racked up court victories upholding other immigration policies, such as the public charge rule and the use of appropriated funds for border wall construction.