DALLAS — The United States’ Remain in Mexico program requiring asylum-seekers to wait across the border while their cases are processed in U.S. immigration courts resumed Monday. But largely due to new parameters set by Mexico as a price for that nation’s co-operation, fewer people will be forced into the program, and those caught up in it should move through the asylum vetting process more quickly.
Widely known as Remain in Mexico, the Trump administration launched the Migration Protection Protocols in 2019. It has been widely criticized for requiring thousands of asylum seekers to wait for long periods in border cities where drug-related violence is rampant. The Biden administration tried to end the program, but federal courts have ordered it to resume.
Mexico has promised not to deport asylum-seekers who are waiting for their U.S. cases to be processed under the program. Key takeaways from the agreement between Mexico and the U.S. which allow the program to resume include:
—Under the conditions the Mexican government set to relaunch the Remain in Mexico program, the U.S. agreed to introduce key changes such as committing to complete asylum cases within six months after the migrants’ initial return to Mexico.
—The U.S. Department of Homeland Security won’t automatically place particularly vulnerable migrants into the program, including people with physical or mental disabilities, pregnant women, the elderly, and LGBTQ people. Those cases will be evaluated on a case by case basis. Unaccompanied minors will not be enrolled in the program.
—The U.S. has promised help with increased funding for international groups supporting shelters.
—Health screenings and COVID-19 vaccines will be provided for migrants in the Remain in Mexico program as well as for migrants ejected from the U.S. under Title 42, the COVID-related emergency health measure that allows for rapid expulsion of newly arrived migrants in the U.S.
—Asylum-seekers will get access to legal aid.
Roberto Velasco Álvarez, chief of Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry’s North American division, said the U.S. would be working with Mexican officials to ensure adequate implementation of the new protocols, taking into account the capabilities of Mexico’s National Migration Institute and local security situations.
“Implementation will be coordinated both at the central level between Mexico City and Washington, D.C., particularly at border level. We’re working to ensure a gradual, orderly process, respecting migrants’ human rights,” Velasco Álvarez wrote on Twitter.
In January this year, the Biden administration ended Remain in Mexico. But last August, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the program reinstated after a lawsuit was filed by Texas and Missouri in April.
Returns to Mexico began Monday, in El Paso, and will be expanding across the other ports in San Diego, Calexico, Nogales, Laredo and Brownsville. There will be a limit of 30 people enrolled in MPP per day in El Paso, according to CBP.
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