The “caravan” of Central American illegal aliens that is crawling north to the border might run into an obstacle: members of the previous caravan headed in the opposite direction.

The Trump administration has announed its plan to send “asylum seekers” back across the border.

A fact sheet posted at the website of the Department of Homeland Security yesterday announced new “Migrant Protection Protocols” that will, under the authority of the Immigration and Nationality Act, send “migrants” back to Mexico while the courts dispose of their phony asylum claims.

The day of catch and release, which permits illegal aliens who file the false claims to disappear into the country and attach themselves to the public teat, might well be ending.

Operation Big Boot

The MPP fact sheet opens with a message from Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen: “We have implemented an unprecedented action that will address the urgent humanitarian and security crisis at the Southern border,” the secretary said. “This humanitarian approach will help to end the exploitation of our generous immigration laws.”

The Migrant Protection Protocols — perhaps it should be called Operation Big Boot — are an action, the fact sheet says, “whereby certain foreign individuals entering or seeking admission to the U.S. from Mexico — illegally or without proper documentation — may be returned to Mexico and wait outside of the U.S. for the duration of their immigration proceedings, where Mexico will provide them with all appropriate humanitarian protections for the duration of their stay.”

The protocols, which the Washington Post reported became operational today, “will help restore a safe and orderly immigration process” and “decrease the number of those taking advantage of the immigration system,” and as well, end the incentive for smugglers and traffickers to transport illegals to the border.

Until recently, the fact sheet notes, illegal aliens were mostly single Mexican men who were deported within 48 hours. But now more than “60% are family units and unaccompanied children and 60% are non-Mexican. In FY17, CBP apprehended 94,285 family units from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador (Northern Triangle) at the Southern border. Of those, 99% remain in the country today.”

An average of 2,000 illegal and inadmissible aliens hit the border each day in the first quarter of fiscal 2019, the fact sheet says. “This has been a prime cause of our near-800,000 case backlog in immigration courts and delivers no consequences to aliens who have entered illegally.”

Ninety percent of asylum claims from the Northern Triangle are bogus, the fact sheet reported.

Legal Authority, No More Catch and Release

The legal authority for the MPP lies in Section 235 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which says the Homeland Security chief can “in the case of an alien ... who is arriving on land (whether or not at a designated port of arrival) from a foreign territory contiguous to the U.S. ... return the alien to that territory pending a [removal] proceeding.”

Importantly, the MPP fact sheet says the days of catch and release into the United States are over:

Certain aliens attempting to enter the U.S. illegally or without documentation, including those who claim asylum, will no longer be released into the country, where they often fail to file an asylum application and/or disappear before an immigration judge can determine the merits of any claim. Instead, these aliens will be given a “Notice to Appear” for their immigration court hearing and will be returned to Mexico until their hearing date.

While aliens await their hearings in Mexico, the Mexican government has made its own determination to provide such individuals the ability to stay in Mexico, under applicable protection based on the type of status given to them.

Illegals can recross the border legally to attend their court hearings. Those with valid claims may stay. Those who with phony claims get a trip home.

And happily, though the illegals can get lawyers, taxpayers won’t foot the bill. That’s no problem for the illegals, however, given the plethora of subversive leftist lawyers always ready to file a lawsuit to destroy U.S. immigration law.

Quoting an anonymous DHS official, the Post reported that the plan was set to begin today at the port of entry at San Ysidro, California, where illegal aliens twice attacked U.S. border agents, then roll out to the rest of the border.

An open-borders activist told the Post the plan is illegal. Lawsuits are coming.

Image: screenshot from DHS website