Congressman Issa Opposes Biden Administration’s Reckless Border Protection Reversal
Washington – Congressman Darrell Issa (CA-50) publicly detailed problematic specifics of the Biden Administration’s reversal of the effective Migration Protection Protocols (MPP) and border security policy.
“The Biden Administration’s decision to escort 25,000 migrants into this country during a global pandemic is reckless and ill-conceived. That it is also happening at a time when must rebuild our economy and reopen our schools after multiple government shutdowns is a betrayal of those who have sacrificed so much over the last year,” Issa stated.
Starting Friday February 20, the San Diego border began processing migrants previously awaiting immigration processing in Mexico, into the United States. Beginning with dozens of entrants each day, the system will ramp to hundreds in the coming weeks. Taxpayers will then start footing the bill for the migrants’ health care, quarantine costs and other expenses before facilitating their travel to their U.S. destination of preference.
The work to process the new admittees will be conducted in part by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) Agents, many of whom have not yet received access to the COVID-19 vaccine. While the State of California recently prioritized cannabis shop employees for vaccination access, law enforcement professionals are still waiting in line. Of additional concern is that CBP’s resources could be diverted from safeguarding our border, processing authorized Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) shipments and stopping dangerous counterfeit knockoffs.
In addition, the CBP workload will not stop there. January saw 3,000 CBP border arrests per day, with no anticipated decrease.
Issa concluded: “The MPP established in 2018 worked as intended. It prevented inappropriate entry and was an essential benefit in the earliest days of the pandemic. It is more than reasonable for our nation to maintain agreements with neighboring countries and process legitimate asylum seekers in an orderly fashion. It is fair to ask those seeking admittance to the U.S. to wait in line. And it is wise to enforce our laws and maintain a secure border at all times, especially during a pandemic.
This is none of that. It is both a domestic disaster and a foreign policy failure.”
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