On June 30th, the Supreme Court decided that the Biden administration has the right to revoke the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program, which required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while USCIS processed their cases. The Remain in Mexico program was enacted by the Trump administration in January of 2019 and is now on its way of being eliminated.
The Department of Homeland Security supported this termination of this “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP) by arguing that their efforts to end the program as soon as possible will persist. A review concluded that the past administration’s MPP was unsafe, inhumane, and ineffective as it did not assist in securing our border. Migrants seeking asylum have been sent to Mexico to await processing, resulting in massive refugee camps on the other side of the border with increased kidnapping and assaults. Overall, this “Remain in Mexico” program subjected migrants to many dangers due to its deterrence policies.
This program is said to be “making the border crisis worse” because according to Transactional Record Access Clearinghouse Immigration, less than 2% of completed Migrant Protection Protocol cases ended with a person being granted asylum. So, the Biden administration has decided to process asylum cases with a goal of six months as it typically takes five years for a migrant to receive their asylum decision. Allowing migrants to await processing in the United States will lessen their contact with human traffickers and other dangers that the border exposes them to.
