Migrants wait for asylum as US faces massive influx at Mexico border.
Former US President Donald Trump has once again slammed Joe Bidens policies, saying the new president is seeking to erase US borders and "flood the country with so many illegal aliens that every community is overwhelmed."
"Joe Biden is the first American president who doesnt want America to be a nation at all," Trump said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
"Our country is being destroyed before our very eyes," he added.
The statement was issued a day after the Biden administration ended the Trump-era "Remain in Mexico" policy, which forced tens of thousands of Central American asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for US court cases, according to a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo sent to agency leaders.
The DHS said on Tuesday that Trumps initiative, also called Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), didnt "adequately or sustainably" enhance border management and that retaining the program wouldnt be consistent with the Biden administrations "vision and values."
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief Alejandro Mayorkas had condemned the "cruelty" of Trumps border policies.
11,200 asylum seekers, who had been awaiting their immigration cases, entered the US after the new administration paused the MPP when Biden took office in January.
Trump had described the Migrant Protection Protocols as "one of the most successful border security programs anyone has ever put into effect anywhere," saying that along with asylum reforms and cooperation agreements with Central American countries, the MPP helped secure the US border and end the practice of "catch-and-release."
He said, in the statement, that no American president had ever done more to defend the border and safeguard the whole immigration system.
"The Biden administration inherited the most secure border in history, and they turned it into the greatest border disaster in history. Our border is now run by cartels, criminals and coyotes."
"Illegal immigrants, gang members and lethal drugs are pouring across like never before. Not only are illegal immigrants being caught and released, they are being put up in hotels at taxpayer expense," the former US president added.
Biden began unwinding Trumps policies immediately after the assumed office in January.
The US president issued a flurry of immigration-related executive decisions, including orders to end "extreme immigration enforcement", and to preserve and fortify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which gives work permits and protection from deportation to people brought illegally to the US as minors.
The decision led to an influx of refugees and unaccompanied migrant children from South and Central America to the southern US border in recent weeks, forcing the authorities to recognize the situation on the south border as a crisis.
Although the border was officially closed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, about 65 percent of families and 15% of single adults are still released into the US to await their immigration cases, according to the April figures by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The Biden administration has been sharply criticized by both fellow Democrats and Republicans for its handling of the refugee crisis at the border and failing to provide proper facilities with adequate facilities to the migrant children, exposing them to various dangers.
Mayorkas said Bidens policies have caused families to voluntarily separate.
More than 4,300 unaccompanied children who crossed the US-Mexico border are being held at a makeshift detention center in Texas under distressing conditions.
Bidens order to use Trump-era detainment facilities to house migrant children - which Democrats would often use to accuse Trump of putting "kids in cages" - has also drawn sharp criticism.
Most of them are teenagers from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador, though some have been reported to be as young as six.
Persecution, gang violence, and poverty are the reasons parents have seen sending them to seek refuge in the US, though they remain vulnerable to exploitation and sexual abuse along the way.
Credible reports have said children held at some US facilities were also "sexually assaulted".
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has blamed President Biden for the deepening humanitarian crisis at the border with Mexico.
Abbott issued a disaster declaration on Tuesday, freeing up more state resources to combat "criminal activities stemming from Bidens border crisis."
"President Bidens open-border policies have paved the way for dangerous gangs and cartels, human traffickers and deadly drugs, like fentanyl, to pour into our communities," Abbott said. "Landowners along the border are seeing their property damaged and vandalized on a daily basis while the Biden administration does nothing to protect them."
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/22753
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