Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said President-elect Donald Trump’s Remain in Mexico immigration program, if implemented on day one of the Trump-Vance administration, is expected to immediately reduce the number of illegal border crossings.
Implemented in 2019 during Trump’s first presidential term, Remain in Mexico allowed Border Patrol to expel certain asylum-seeking migrants back to Mexico while their cases moved through the U.S. immigration court system.
The Biden-Harris administration ended the program in 2022.
Bensman said that under “Trump 2.0,” the implementation of the Remain in Mexico program will deliver immediate results and “swiftly” reduce the current “border chaos” due to the program’s strong deterrence measures.
“The reason [Remain in Mexico] was controversial is because it was so impactful,” Bensman explained on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“The reason people cross the border to claim asylum is not actually because they need asylum. It’s because it gets them past the border patrol to wait for the five year, 10 year backlog to adjudicate asylum inside the United States. That’s why they come. So that just takes the whole incentive out of it. If you have to wait in Mexico, nobody wants to come here for the great Mexican dream,” Bensman added.
Having interviewed migrants in 2019 who were expelled back to Mexico under Remain in Mexico, Bensman said the Trump-era program is a successful deterrent as individuals do not want to jeopardize spending the time and money to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border and be expelled back to Mexico.
“I went down in 2019 when it was in play to interview migrants who were pushed back under it, illegal aliens that got pushed back under that thing about what their plan was. Universally, their plan was, ‘We’re going home because we didn’t come for the great Mexican dream,’” Bensman explained.
“Nobody wants to spend $10,000 that they don’t have if you’re probably not going to get to stay,” Bensman added.
In addition, Bensman said Trump’s words since becoming president-elect have also had a major impact on the current immigration situation, specifically when it comes to the hundreds of thousands of migrants who are currently in Mexico with a collective goal of reaching the U.S. southern border.
Bensman said his on-the-ground sources in Mexico say that Trump’s message to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, in which he threatened to impose hefty tariffs on the country if it does not work to curb the flow of immigration into the U.S., was heard “loud and clear” as the Mexican military is actively breaking up existing caravans that intend to travel to the border.
“They heard [Trump’s message] loud and clear. That matters a lot when the incoming president of the United States says we will destroy your economy if you don’t hold back [the migrants],” Bensman said.
Bensman also attributed Trump and his border czar Tom Homan’s “strength of rhetoric” to the suppression of migrant traffic en route to the U.S.
“Tom Homan is on every media outlet he can get on. I’m guessing that’s not because he’s a media hog or something. It’s by design. It’s strategy because he’s letting the people down there know what’s going to happen if they do cross – you’re going to get deported. All of you are on the table – not just the criminals. Everybody is on the table for mass deportation – don’t come. I think that’s having a very powerful effect,” Bensman said.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
