DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has put the final nail in the coffin of the Migrant Protection Protocols put in place under President Donald Trump, better known as the Remain in Mexico policy. Joe Biden had already suspended the policy via executive order shortly after taking office so it could be subjected to “further study,” but this action by DHS makes it official. The wildly successful policy had eased the strain on our immigration courts considerably and anecdotal stories suggest that it discouraged many would-be migrants from making the journey and attempting to enter the United States illegally. But since it was an arrangement put in place by the Bad Orange Man, it clearly had to go. Still, if nothing else, you should at least get a chuckle when you read the explanation for why the policy was somehow flawed. (Free Beacon)

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas officially ended the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy on Tuesday, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

“I have determined that MPP does not adequately or substantially enhance border management in such a way as to justify the program’s extensive operational burden and other shortfalls,” Mayorkas wrote in a signed memo, referring to the “Remain in Mexico” policy by its official name, the Migrant Protection Protocols. “Over the course of the program, border encounters increased during certain periods and decreased during others.”

Mayorkas’s memo is the latest effort by the president to unilaterally chip away at his predecessor’s immigration policies.

Let’s go back and revisit the explanation offered by Mayorkas. “Over the course of the program, border encounters increased during certain periods and decreased during others.”

Oh, really? Ya think? The number of border encounters by CBP and ICE always fluctuates. The numbers are higher during the winter than in the summer because crossing the desert in the summer is a deadlier proposal. More people try to cross at night than during the daylight hours. There isn’t some magical toll booth south of the border letting migrants go through at a steady, measured pace.

What’s also true, though Mayorkas would be loath to admit it, is that the number of border encounters was always lower than the numbers we’ve seen since Joe Biden took office, rolled out the welcome mat, and suspended the policy. We’re seeing record numbers of people swarming across the border every month in every category. Whether you’re talking about single adults, family units, or unaccompanied minors, the volume is up across the board.

Mayorkas and Biden need to ask themselves if they really want to go out in front of the press with a straight face and try to claim that this is “normal” or that it’s somehow Donald Trump’s fault. Well… they’re already trying that anyway, but I don’t think you could even get the CNN morning show crew to go along with that line.

Donald Trump had to put in a lot of work to convince both Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries to go along with his plans. A deal was finally cut and for the last two years of his presidency we actually had a partner on the other side of the border that was willing to work with us to stop the endless migrant caravans and reduce the pressure on our immigration services. In a matter of days, Joe Biden managed to sweep all of that progress away as a sop to his open-borders advocates on the far left. And now the southern border is in a state of chaos and disaster, with Border Czar Kamala Harris still nowhere to be found.

Great job, guys. Things are going so well that the Governor of Texas issued a disaster declaration this week. Another campaign promise kept, I suppose.