Donald Trump pulled the U.S. from participating in the UN Global Compact on Migration (GCM) this week, reversing the course Barack Obama set when he signed the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants in 2016. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley cited concerns over national sovereignty rights as the reason for the withdrawal, stating, “America is proud of our immigrant heritage and our long-standing moral leadership in providing support to migrant and refugee populations across the globe. No country has done more than the United States, and our generosity will continue. But our decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone. We will decide how best to control our borders and who will be allowed to enter our country.” Haley continued, “The global approach in the New York Declaration is simply not compatible with U.S. sovereignty.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson agreed with Haley’s concerns, writing that the New York Declaration “contains a number of policy goals” that don’t comport “with U.S. law and policy.” Tillerson added, “While we will continue to engage on a number of fronts at the United Nations, in this case, we simply cannot in good faith support a process that could undermine the sovereign right of the United States to enforce our immigration laws and secure our borders.”

Meanwhile, globalists, who pine after UN control over U.S. immigration policy among other things, responded by painting the decision as yet further evidence of what they have called Trump’s “withdrawal doctrine” supposedly leading to a growing practice of American isolationism. Leave it to the globalist elites and their groupthink to spin the long-accepted rights of national sovereignty and self-rule as being selfish and unjust. Look what open-borders policies have done to Europe.

Andrew Arthur, resident fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, pointed out the biggest problem with the UN’s GCM: “The idea that we had unelected officials negotiating some sort of global migration compact is problematic… There’s plainly a huge role for the United States to play, as relates to migration. But … the fact remains that that is an issue for Congress and for the American people to decide, not for unaccountable bureaucrats.”