Asylum applicants no longer have to wait in Mexico while their cases are being heard in court, as the US Department of Homeland Security stated on Monday night.
US President Joe Biden’s administration had been unable to stop the “Remain in Mexico” policy because of an injunction issued by a federal judge.
Tens of thousands of asylum seekers were transferred across the border until they were compelled to appear in the United States for their immigration hearings under Trump’s policy, which was implemented in 2019.
In some cases, vulnerable persons were stranded in border communities that the United States had previously warned its residents to avoid owing to violence, according to critics of the program.
The government said in a statement that the policy would be reversed “in a swift and orderly way.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that no one else will be enrolled and that individuals who cross the border for their court dates will no longer be sent back to Mexico thereafter.
Officially referred to as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), the strategy, according to DHS, has “endemic weaknesses, levies unacceptable human costs, and draws resources and manpower away from other priority initiatives to defend our border.”
Shortly after reaching office, Biden tried to make good on a campaign pledge to scrap the border barrier in favor of a “more humanitarian” approach to immigration.
Although Republican-run states, including Texas, sued the Obama administration, which resulted in a US District Court ordering the program to be reintroduced.
On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled that Biden had the authority to terminate the program.
According to the American Immigration Council, at least 70,000 people were transferred to Mexico from January 2019 to Biden’s first suspension of the policy.
A total of 1,544 publicly documented incidences of murder, rapes, torture, kidnapping or other abuses on individuals moved across the border under the Remain in Mexico program were reported by Human Rights First between January 2019 and 2021. At least one child was killed in each of these cases.
A “zero tolerance” strategy, as advocated by the Trump administration, was deemed necessary to stop illegal immigration into the United States.
A total of 9,563 people were enrolled in the insurance between December 2021 and June 2022 under the resurrected program, the majority of whom were not Mexican but Nicaraguan.
Under Vice President Biden’s leadership, over 200,000 immigrants seeking to enter the United States illegally each month have been deported back to Mexico under the Remain in Mexico or Covid-related policies.
