The “Remain in Mexico” program, officially known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), was first established by former President Donald Trump in January 2019. As the New York Times explains, this policy “requires certain migrants to wait in Mexico while their cases are pending.”
Since then, around 70,000 asylum seekers have been forced to wait in Mexico, where they lived in poor sheltering conditions and experienced dangerous circumstances, with little legal and humanitarian assistance. A February 2021 Human Rights First report documented more than 1,500 murders, kidnappings, rapes, and torture of migrants subject to MPP.
Furthermore, analysts question the legal basis for the policy. The Justice for Immigrants organization clarifies that MPP applies to migrants who pass a credible fear screening with a U.S. asylum officer, which means they have passed the first step in the asylum requesting process by proving a credible fear of persecution. Section 235 of the Immigration and Nationality Act requires those who meet that qualification be held in U.S. detention.
President Joe Biden suspended the MPP on his first day of office, then ended the program in June through a memo. However, on August 13, a Texas federal judge ruled that the Biden administration did not provide sufficient reason for terminating the program and the Supreme Court did not block the ruling, meaning the Biden administration must reinstate the policy “in good faith.” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki maintained that the Biden administration will continue to challenge the court’s decision but will comply with the court order in the meantime.
Previously, MPP did not apply to non-Spanish speakers because living in Mexico would be unreasonably difficult for them to find work, seek legal aid, and support themselves given the language barrier. Under Biden’s reinstatement of the program, MPP now applies to both Spanish and non-Spanish speakers, expanding the number of migrants that MPP could impact.
As a result, immigration rights organizations are especially concerned for migrants from non-Spanish speaking countries like Haiti, who have faced racial discrimination in Mexico. A survey conducted by Al Otro Lado found that 20 percent of Haitian asylum seekers have faced violence in the hands of Mexican law enforcement.
Former President Trump also implemented another immigration policy known as Title 42 at the start of the pandemic which enabled US officials to deport migrants back to their home country amid fears that migrants could spread the coronavirus disease. Title 42 has also been continued under the Biden administration, leading to roughly 700,000 expulsions, nearly twice the amount under the Trump administration, according to September statistics from U.S. customs authorities.
Opponents of these policies have voiced their concerns. Ursela Ojeda, senior policy adviser for migrant rights and justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission pleads for the Biden administration not to expand Remain in Mexico, which was not ordered by the court, making MPP “more cruel and more deadly.” Former senior State Department official Harold Hongju Koh calls the deportations a violation of “our legal obligation not to expel or return individuals who fear persecution, death, or torture.”
Sources:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/12/4/22815657/biden-remain-in-mexico-mpp-border-migrant
https://thehill.com/latino/584797-remain-in-mexico-opens-old-wounds-among-immigration-advocates
https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-344943382011
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/22/biden-haiti-trump-title42-deportation-refugee-texas/
Photos:
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/22/1039626787/haiti-airport-expulsion-deportation-del-rio-updates
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/02/1060896872/u-s-will-resume-remain-in-mexico-policy-for-asylum-seekers