More migrants now will get 2nd chance at asylum

“While we commend the Biden administration for continuing to wind down this clearly unlawful policy, it is essential that every person affected by Remain in Mexico be able to access the U.S. asylum process.” Melissa Crow

Senior supervising attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center

The U.S. government on Wednesday will begin processing more asylumseekers sent to Mexico under a sinceended program by expanding eligibility and giving migrants whose cases had been closed a second chance to claim asylum in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday it would expand eligibility for individuals sent to Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols to be processed for asylum and allowed to enter the U.S.

The move could impact nearly 35,000 migrants, according to Syracuse University’s Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse, which has been tracking cases under the Migrant Protection Protocols.

The change announced Wednesday, and which goes into effect the same day, allows U.S. border officials to begin processing migrants whose cases under MPP had been previously terminated, or cases where the judge had ordered them to be removed without being present at their hearings.

This announcement is the latest effort from the administration of President Joe Biden to dismantle the program after he had pledged he would do so during the presidential campaign.

After he took office in January, Biden suspended the program, more widely known as “Remain in Mexico.” Earlier this month, he issued an executive order formally ending it.

Since Biden took office, the Department of Homeland Security has taken steps to process some of 71,000 migrants who were sent to wait in Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols while their asylum proceedings moved through U.S. immigration courts, according to TRAC estimates.

In February, U.S. border officials began to process the first group of migrants enrolled in the Migrant Protection Protocols, those who had active pending cases. That affected approximately 27,000 people.

TRAC estimates that of that number, only 10,375 have been processed and paroled into the U.S so they can continue to pursue their asylum claims from this side of the border. That means there are another 16,000 active cases that have yet to be processed, according to TRAC.

“The Biden administration’s willingness to give asylum-seekers a real first chance to have their case heard before an immigration judge will allow many migrants to experience a degree of fairness that they did not have under the Migrant Protection Protocols,” Austin Kocher, an assistant professor and researcher at TRAC, said in a statement following the DHS announcement.

“However, we also recently found that less than half of migrants with pending cases have been allowed into the United States, which means that it is unlikely that all of those who are eligible will ultimately be able to reopen their case,” he added.

The administration of former President Donald Trump began sending migrants to Mexico under MPP in January 2019, as a way to deter illegal border crossings. Over the next year, they expanded it to the entire U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump proclaimed it a success and regularly touted that it had led to decreased crossing at the U.S.-Mexico border.

But the “Remain in Mexico” program was widely panned by migrant and legal advocates who routinely expressed concern about the living conditions migrants who returned to Mexico faced, as well as obstacles to reaching hearings and access to legal counsel for their cases.

The program’s critics, including

Democratic lawmakers, celebrated the announcement expanding eligibility for processing.

“By keeping migrants in dangerous conditions in Mexico, the Trump Administration ensured many people would not be able to appear at their hearings and their claims would be rejected. Allowing these people to be eligible for processing is the right thing to do,” U.S. Reps. Bennie Thompson, DMiss., and Nanette Diaz Barragán, DCalif., said in a joint written statement.

They respectively lead the House Homeland Security Committee and its border-security subcommittee.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which filed two lawsuit against the Migrant Protection Protocols since it launched in 2019, welcomed the announcement, saying the program had deprived thousands of vulnerable migrants of the opportunity to seek protection.

“While we commend the Biden administration for continuing to wind down this clearly unlawful policy, it is essential that every person affected by Remain in Mexico be able to access the U.S. asylum process,” said Melissa Crow, the center’s senior supervising attorney.

Another group, Human Rights First, had been tracking cases of violence, kidnappings, extortion and other impacts on individuals sent to Mexico under MPP.

“Looking forward, the Biden administration should also quickly move ahead to provide access to MPP processing for asylum seekers who were denied asylum under this rigged program,” said Eleanor Acer, the group’s senior director of refugee protection. “MPP proceedings were plagued by due process violations, barriers to legal representation and wrongful denials due to unlawful or now rescinded Trump administration policies.”

Human Rights First documented more than 1,500 incidents involving migrants under “Remain in Mexico,” though they have said many more instances likely went unreported.