As the crisis at the border continues, the Biden administration is pushing again to end the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required migrants at the southern border to stay in Mexico as they wait for their asylum cases to be heard.

“After carefully considering the arguments, evidence, and perspectives presented by those who support re-implementation of MPP, those who support terminating the program, and those who have argued for continuing MPP in a modified form, I have determined that MPP should be terminated,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote in a Friday memo.

“In reaching this conclusion, I recognize that MPP likely contributed to reduced migratory flows. But it did so by imposing substantial and unjustifiable human costs on the individuals who were exposed to harm while waiting in Mexico,” he wrote, adding that the policy “fails to provide the fair process and humanitarian protections that all persons deserve.”

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Mayorkas’ announcement of the decision to end a policy that self-admittedly reduced illegal immigration comes weeks after reports that the Biden administration was expecting a potential surge of up to 400,000 migrants attempting to illegally cross the southern border in October – nearly double the 21-year record broken in July when over 210,000 migrants illegally crossed the southern border.

Earlier this month, Mayorkas also directed authorities to focus on only deporting illegal immigrants who “pose a threat to national security, public safety, and border security.”

“The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen, therefore, should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them,” Mayorkas wrote in a memo. “We will use our discretion and focus our enforcement resources in a more targeted way. Justice and our country’s well-being require it.”

Mayorkas outlined “mitigating factors” that would prevent the deportation of an illegal immigrant who had committed a crime, including: “advanced or tender age; lengthy presence in the United States; a mental condition that may have contributed to the criminal conduct, or a physical or mental condition requiring care or treatment.”