The “Remain in Mexico” migration policy implemented by Donald Trump was re-instated on December 6, 2021. After the U.S. president rescinded the policy, a federal judge ordered Joe Biden’s administration to reinstate it.
The policy, implemented by former President Donald Trump, consists of forcing asylum seekers arriving at the southern border of the United States to wait in Mexico until their fate is determined.
A decision called discriminatory and racist by several immigrant rights organizations that also criticized the new administration for not doing enough to improve the situation of illegal immigrants in the United States.
In an open letter Monday, a group of former immigration judges insist on the right of anyone who feels threatened to seek protection in another country.
“The policy of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPPs) is to pillory those who, if they qualify for asylum, are required by international law to admit, protect, and afford them many basic rights,” former immigration judges wrote in the open letter. They also point to the violence against immigrants in Mexico. This is contrary to international principles and standards, the former judges lament.
“In this case, the “pounding” is literal, with reports that people who are legally exercising their right to seek asylum in the United States are subject to kidnapping, extortion, sexual abuse and other physical threats and attacks. This is the antithesis of fairness, in which parties do not have equal access to justice,” the judges lamented, urging the Biden administration to “stop the unwarranted expansion of the PPM.”
Immigrant rights organizations in the United States have also echoed the concerns of the former judges. According to reports from several non-governmental organizations, asylum seekers face serious security problems in Mexico. Many of them are victims of robbery, rape and other crimes, human rights advocates in the U.S. said.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has also expressed concern about the current situation in Mexico. There is a great risk of malnutrition and other diseases for children in the immigrant camps in Mexico, warns a spokeswoman for the institution. “There are a lot of people and right now it’s very concerning because of COVID. There is also a lot of garbage, there are no places where they can access water, where they can wash themselves or take care of their nutritional needs.”, she added.
Of the 84,600 asylum seekers registered in Mexico, more than 40% are children, according to the American newspaper The Hill.
According to figures released on Tuesday, December 7, 2021, by COMAR (Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance), an entity of the Mexican Ministry of the Interior, approximately 123,190 people, 47,494 of whom are Haitians, or about 40%, applied for asylum between January and November 2021. This makes Haitians the largest group of asylum seekers in Mexico. But the final destination of Haitian immigrants is far from being Mexico. The final goal is to live in Uncle SAM’s country, which is very hostile to Haitian immigrants.
In less than a month, more than 9,000 Haitian nationals who have taken refuge under the Del Rio Bridge in Texas have been turned back to Haiti by Joe Biden’s administration despite an internal report from the U.S. Department of the Interior asking that Haitian migrants not be deported to their country. The report’s authors had pointed to serious security problems in Haiti.