A key program in controlling the US southern borer immigration will likely be restored by the Joe Biden administration next week
The hot button “Remain in Mexico” program, originally devised by the Donald Trump administration, will see asylum seekers have to wait in Mexico before the merits of their claims can be decided by immigration courts. The Axios website broke the story earlier today.
Mexico has yet to sign off on reinstating the program, which could push back its implementation. The country had to endure many squalid refugee camps when the policy was originally in place, angering many Mexicans.
The US program was canceled by Biden in June. However, in August, the US Supreme Court upheld a federal judge’s ruling that the program had to be reinstated. The policy, formally called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), will begin in the key borders towns in El Paso and Brownsville, Texas, as well as San Diego in California when they reactivated.
As an incentive for immigrants, the reinstated program will offer free Covid-19 vaccines. But the where and when of that hasn’t been revealed. Vaccinations will not be mandated for immigrants.
“In compliance with the court order, we are working to reimplement MPP as promptly as possible,” Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Marsha Espinosa told Axios. “We cannot do so until we have the independent agreement from the Government of Mexico to accept those we seek to enroll in MPP. We will communicate to the court, and to the public, the timing of reimplementation when we are prepared to do so.”
