‘Remain in Mexico’ is as inhumane as ever
Here’s what you should know about the Biden administration’s reinstatement of Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy.
Its intent is the same as always: to discourage asylum-seekers at the southern border by forcing them to wait in Mexico while their petitions make their way through the legal system.
The policy’s full Orwellian name is Migrant Protection Protocols.
What it has provided is not protection but danger.
The program was instituted by the Trump administration in 2019 as a deterrent to border crossings.
Note that asylum-seekers don’t cross our border illegally. They turn themselves in and request asylum legally. In the past, they were allowed into this country to make the case before an immigration judge that they had a well-founded fear of persecution, based on race, religion, nationality or political views, if sent back to their homelands.
Some weren’t able to prove their cases and were deported.
But Remain in Mexico wasn’t created to facilitate a fair hearing of their cases. Asylum-seekers did not have ready access to attorneys and weren’t notified of court dates in a timely manner.
They lived in makeshift camps, exposed to the elements, subject to violence, sexual assault, extortion and unsanitary conditions. They were set up for suffering.
Under Trump, asylum cases sometimes dragged on for years while petitioners waited in Mexico. More than 25,000 asylum claims filed by migrants ensnared in the program are still awaiting action, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan research institute at Syracuse University.
President Joe Biden suspended Remain in Mexico on his first day in office, but Texas and Missouri sued to have it reinstated. A Trump-appointed federal judge in Amarillo saw wisdom where none had previously been detected — in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The judge ruled in favor of Texas and Missouri, finding that Biden shut the program down without sufficient justification. The administration appealed, but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene.
Reluctantly, Biden moved to resurrect Remain in Mexico, with changes meant to ease migrants’ sufferings. At the same time, the administration is pursuing an appeal of the judge’s order, still hoping to end the policy once and for all based on a more detailed rationale.
In support of that effort, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in October: “I have concluded that there are inherent problems with the program that no amount of resources can sufficiently fix.”
So when you read that Biden is “relaunching” the program, “reviving” it or “restarting” it, know that he’s doing so because he must until the Texas ruling can be overturned.
At the same time, the administration has maintained a separate Trump policy, known as Title 42, that allows quick deportation of migrants on health and safety grounds, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Critics complain that the Biden administration isn’t fighting Remain in Mexico hard enough. They say that no matter the changes made, those who remain in Mexico will be forced to endure inhumane conditions.
The U.S. group Human Rights First documented more than 1,500 cases of kidnappings and attacks on those returned to Mexico.
As migrant camps spread again on the Mexican side of the border, know that the same deplorable conditions will reappear.
“This is a disaster waiting to happen,” Aaron Reichlin-melnick, policy counsel for the American Immigration Council, said on Twitter this week.
We can hope asylum-seekers will gain access to attorneys and fair hearings.
We can hope those who insist they’ll face violence, even death, if returned to their homelands will be granted asylum.
We can hope hearings will be expedited, as the Biden administration has promised.
The administration has agreed, at the request of Mexican authorities, to provide COVID-19 vaccinations for asylum-seekers and to improve their access to counsel.
In one important change, U.S. officials proactively will ask migrants and asylum-seekers if they have a fear of remaining in Mexico. Those who do might be exempted from Remain in Mexico.
Under Trump, migrants had to assert such fears on their own.
In another change, categories of vulnerable people, including the elderly and those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, will be exempt from Remain in Mexico. So will unaccompanied minors.
The program was revamped, according to the Biden administration, because Mexico pushed for changes. But know this: Whatever was worked out between the two countries likely won’t be what we will see on the ground.
None of it will create a fair or generous asylum system or reform our immigration laws. Those longstanding goals will remain unfulfilled.