“MPP was an illegal, human rights, and due process disaster that cruelly and needlessly placed people seeking protection into harm’s way,” said Ursela Ojeda, policy advisor of the Migrant Rights and Justice Program at the Women’s Refugee Commission. “The Biden administration was right to announce a suspension of MPP on its first day in office and to formally end the policy earlier this year. We were outraged this week to see reports that even before the Texas district court decision that the Biden administration was considering ‘reviving’ MPP. There is no way to reinstate MPP or any future iteration of an MPP-style policy in a humane or rights-respecting way. We call on the Biden administration to do everything in its power to prevent the reinstatement of MPP, restore access to asylum at our border, and live up to its promise of building a humane and orderly immigration system.”
“MPP returns asylum seekers to danger in Mexico and in violation of the United States’ legal obligations to refugees,” said Anwen Hughes director of legal strategy at Human Rights First. “This policy has already caused over 1,500 publicly reported cases of murder, rape, torture, kidnapping, and other violent assaults against asylum seekers returned to Mexico. The Fifth Circuit decision, ignoring objections from human rights and immigrant rights organizations and former judges, is a recipe for disorder and further abuse.”
“The Biden Administration’s decision to terminate this cruel policy was the right one and long overdue,” said Paola Luisi, director of Families Belong Together. “MPP was a key component in Stephen Miller’s effort to attack children and families and knowingly put tens of thousands of people in danger. The policy has led to countless deaths, kidnappings, sexual assault, and extortion. The only path forward is to discontinue practices like MPP that fly in the face of our values and double down on welcoming people with dignity.”
“MPP was a catastrophic policy that imperiled the lives of people seeking safety and made a mockery of due process,” said Blaine Bookey, Legal Director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS). “When CGRS and our litigation partners brought lawsuits against MPP, at every step the federal courts found the policy unlawful, a blatant violation of our domestic and international legal obligations to people fleeing persecution. At this critical moment, will the Biden administration fight for the values it espouses, or cave to perceived political pressures? With so many lives on the line, the choice should be simple. Communities around the country stand ready to welcome people seeking refuge. It is long past time to restore safe and fair asylum processing at the border – not revert to failed policies that sow violence and chaos.”
“As a Mexican organization that worked directly with people under MPP, we can attest to the extreme vulnerability of asylum seekers who were routinely kidnapped and abused, and who lived in precarious conditions while trying to wait for their asylum procedures from Mexico. Mexican organizations have presented claims against Mexico’s participation in MPP including a case before the Supreme Court and a pending criminal complaint regarding the thousands of crimes committed against asylum seekers under MPP. The Mexican government cannot guarantee the safety of migrants along its northern border and reinstating MPP or any iteration of the policy would only put us back into violent chaos at a moment in which we are still trying to pick up the pieces of the lives that MPP destroyed,” said Gretchen Kuhner, Director, Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración (IMUMI).
“This shameful decision is yet another assault on the rights and dignity of people seeking asylum,” said Noah Gottschalk, Global Policy Lead for Oxfam America. “The ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy was grounded in the toxic xenophobia of the Trump administration, and caused immeasurable harm to countless children and families. The Biden administration was right to terminate this illegal program in the first place, and we look forward to seeing the Supreme Court stand on the right side of the law by relegating this harmful program to the history books where it belongs.”
“Discriminatory and illegal practices such as the Migrant Protection Protocols forced asylum seekers to remain in Mexico during their immigration proceedings. The reinstatement of MPP will continue to place vulnerable groups such as Indigenous peoples, in particular Indigenous women and girls, at higher risk of human rights violations like rape, sexual violence, and trafficking,” said Juanita Cabrera Lopez (Maya Mam) and Executive Director of the International Mayan League. “These particular violations are due to Indigenous peoples’ gender, race, and Indigenous identity, yet are further complicated because they cannot report violations due to Indigenous language exclusion, furthering their human rights violations.”
“Cruel immigration policies that result in kidnappings, death, and targeted violence and discrimination should never be revived in any shape or form. Our clients have suffered from unthinkable tragedies because of the illegal ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy,” said Immigrant Defenders Law Center Director of Legal Services, Joyce Noche. “We urge Biden to fight to end ‘Remain in Mexico’ once and for all so our country can move beyond shameful anti-immigrant policies and welcome immigrants with dignity and due process. Anything less is a violation of our country’s legal obligations to refugees and asylum seekers.”
“Remain in Mexico is a deadly policy that has cost lives,” said Anna Gallagher, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, or CLINIC. “It is a national shame. With this new development in the litigation, we call on the Biden administration to immediately seek a stay with the Supreme Court and take every action possible to protect the human rights and dignity of people who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border fleeing for their lives. The United States can and must welcome and build an asylum system grounded in those values. CLINIC stands in solidarity with all seeking safety and with our partners on the ground at the border, doing God’s work.”
“We have seen the results of MPP in cities like Matamoros and Juarez where families survived in tents and under tarps, often falling prey to the cartels who prey on the vulnerable,” said Terry Burton, Chair of Interfaith Welcome Coalition. “Asylum is a right guaranteed by international law. Returning to MPP is to continue to ignore the pleas for help instead of working to find a fair immigrant solution.”
“Make no mistake, this ruling, like the one attacking DACA, is the result of a concerted campaign against immigrants by the State of Texas and others. It is disheartening to see federal judges buy into anti-immigrant fearmongering and ignore the mountain of evidence that the MPP/Remain in Mexico program is both cruel and contrary to U.S. and international law. But we will keep fighting for what is moral and for what is legal: the right to apply for asylum safely, and without being detained, inside the United States. We urge the administration to ask the Supreme Court to put a stop to this immediately,” said Angelica Salas, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) Executive Director.
“MPP undermined the rule of law and put the lives of tens of thousands of people into extreme danger,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Policy Counsel for the American Immigration Council. “The United States must ensure that the rights of those seeking asylum are respected and the administration should pursue an appeal of this egregious decision to the fullest extent.”
“The cruelty and chaos of the Trump years on immigration are a stain on American history not to be celebrated or revived,” said Douglas Rivlin, Director of Communication for America’s Voice. “We can welcome refugees seeking safety and be true to our laws, values, and traditions or we can go back to demonizing immigrants, leaving them to fend for themselves, or denying them their rights under our law. At the very least, we should treat those fleeing danger and seeking safety the way we ourselves would want to be treated were the shoe on the other foot.”
“MPP is not only a flawed policy, but an unlawful and immoral one. To send people fleeing danger back to it is unconscionable,” said Meredith Owen, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Immigration and Refugee Program at Church World Service. “The decision by the Fifth Circuit is tragic, not solely because it flies in the face of the law, decency, and compassion, but because it could lead to additional deaths and violence. Seeking asylum is a legal right, asylum seekers overwhelmingly appear for court dates, and the United States is purportedly a country of welcome. The Biden administration must act to prevent the reinstatement of this program and build a better, more equitable, and more accessible asylum system.”
“The Remain in Mexico program didn’t provide the United States any meaningful benefits; instead it created a humanitarian disaster on our nation’s doorsteps,” said Andrew Geibel, Policy Counsel at HIAS. “Through our work at the border, HIAS saw firsthand the violence, persecution, and other human rights violations that asylum seekers faced while in the program. Remain in Mexico also made a mockery of due process with incredibly high asylum denial rates. Without swift action from the Biden administration, the Fifth Circuit’s decision will resurrect this inhumane program. We urgently repeat our call to the administration that it must use every tool at its disposal, including an appeal to the Supreme Court, to ensure that the Remain in Mexico program never returns.”
“This decision flouts the rights of individuals seeking protection in the United States by appropriating xenophobic talking points straight out of the Stephen Miller playbook,” said Gracie Willis, staff attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Under this policy, the Trump administration returned tens of thousands of individuals to dangerous conditions in Mexico, creating a previously unimaginable humanitarian and due process catastrophe. Knowing full well the extent of the damage created by this policy, the U.S. government must do everything in its power to avoid restarting it.”
“NIJC witnessed firsthand the atrocities of the morally repugnant Remain in Mexico program. Our clients were subjected to repeated kidnappings and violence. We spoke with mothers who were raped in front of their children and families who were torn apart. We saw extortions of individuals exercising their lawful right to seek asylum. Our clients were not alone, as more than 1,500 people were murdered, raped, tortured, kidnapped, or assaulted while waiting in Mexico – and those are only the reported cases. MPP forced families to separate. Our clients, most of whom are Black, Brown, and Indigenous asylum seekers, have suffered unspeakable harms because of a policy designed to punish them for seeking asylum. We call on the Biden administration to recognize and articulate this horrific record to ensure this unconscionable policy is not revived,” said Lisa Koop, Associate Director of Legal Services at the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC). “While asylum seekers continue to be stranded outside U.S. borders, another federal court is calling for their continued detention inside. This decision continues the white supremacist scheme of vilifying migrants and asylum seekers as a danger to the United States. Detention has brought NIJC clients ‘on the edge of collapse.’ Increased enforcement and detention prey on communities of color already victimized in the criminal legal system. We reject the racist premise that undergirds the return to mass detention and enforcement.”
“MPP was a program defined by rampant human rights abuses,” said Amy Fischer, Americas Advocacy Director at Amnesty International USA. “The MPP program is a direct affront to the human right to seek asylum and protection from persecution. Throughout the duration of the program, Amnesty International USA heard first-hand stories of pregnant people, LGBTI people, children, and people with disabilities being subjected to abuses as tens of thousands of people were deprived the opportunity to seek asylum and forced into incredibly dangerous situations in Mexico. The Biden administration was right to unwind the policy in January of this year and we demand they take swift action to protect the right to seek asylum.”
“The ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy was a humanitarian disaster under which tens of thousands of asylum seekers in need of safe haven—including women fleeing rape and severe domestic violence, LGBTQ+ individuals facing deadly attacks, and families fleeing persecution—were instead forced to face additional violence, danger, and trauma,” said Richard Caldarone, Litigation Counsel for the Tahirih Justice Center. “Thousands were kidnapped or otherwise forced to abandon their asylum cases and almost all of those who were able to continue faced the impossible burden of proving an asylum case without representation and without any meaningful opportunity to gather evidence. The Fifth Circuit’s decision to require reinstatement of Remain in Mexico ignores the harm the policy caused, rests on views about people seeking asylum rooted in White Supremacy and xenophobia rather than in evidence, and flies in the face of decades of law and precedent.”
“We are incredibly disappointed that the Fifth Circuit Court has denied the Biden administration’s appeal to halt the re-implementation of the Remain in Mexico policy. Since it was enacted in 2019, we have advocated against its use, highlighting its long-lasting damaging impacts on children and families, who often become victims of violence, rape, torture and extortion while being forced to wait in Mexico,” said Santiago Mueckay, Manager of Federal Government Relations at Save the Children. “We strongly urge the Biden administration to do everything in its power to not only avoid the re-implementation of this inhumane policy, but to also ensure all asylum seekers are treated legally, with dignity, respect and compassion.”
“‘Remain in Mexico’ was an illegal and inhumane policy that sent people back to danger in Mexico and in some cases, even further south of the U.S.-Mexico border. We applauded the Biden administration’s efforts to end this policy on day one and to begin processing asylum seekers from within the United States. To reinstate the policy would be to break this promise. We urge the Biden administration to immediately seek a stay with the Supreme Court and to keep its promise to build a more humane asylum system that respects international law and truly welcomes people with dignity,” said Daniella Burgi-Palomino, Co-director of the Latin America Working Group.
“In our work with migrants and asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border, we saw first-hand how the illegal and inhumane Remain in Mexico policy violated the rights of vulnerable asylum seekers and put lives in danger. The administration must swiftly appeal and fully restore asylum at the border,” said Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute.
“We are dismayed that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals failed to pause a deeply flawed lower court order to restart the illegal and inhumane Remain in Mexico policy, also known as MPP,” said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. “MPP slammed the door on vulnerable asylum seekers, subjecting them to unthinkable violence and danger, and depriving them of due process. Ending MPP was the moral and lawful thing to do, and we urge the Biden administration to immediately ask that the Supreme Court stay this dangerous order. Under no circumstance should the Biden administration return to the shameful MPP policy or implement any similar practice that puts asylum seekers in harm’s way. We urge the administration to continue fighting in the courts to ensure that MPP never happens again and restore full access to asylum so the U.S. can live up to its promise of welcome and safety.”
“Yesterday’s Fifth Circuit decision is a devastating blow to the progress made in putting an end to the heinous MPP program put in place by the previous administration,” said Kate Clark, senior director of immigration services for Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS). “We urge the Biden administration to take immediate action to put a stop to this cruel and disastrous policy by appealing this unlawful order to the Supreme Court. JFS stands at the ready to welcome asylum seekers to the U.S. and provide critical humanitarian and legal assistance to families and individuals fleeing from violence and persecution in their home countries.”
“The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling reinstating the Migrant Protection Protocols is cruel and unjustifiable and will have a devastating impact on some of the most vulnerable asylum seekers who are fleeing extreme violence, including many moms, children and families,” said Donna Norton, Executive Vice President of MomsRising. “We urge the Biden administration to appeal this ruling and, in the meantime, do everything possible to avoid the human rights catastrophe that will result if we force asylum seekers to await their United States court dates in Mexico. Every migrant deserves to be safe and to be treated with compassion, dignity and respect. We can and must do better than this.”
“Does the Biden administration have any idea of the shock and fear that people stuck on the other side of the U.S.-Mexico border feel when they hear the news that Remain in Mexico might come back? Any idea of the extreme pain and suffering that this would cause?” asked Stephen Manning, Executive Director for Innovation Law Lab. “If the administration has any commitment to the value of providing refuge to individuals and families in danger, it will put a stop to this immediately and repair the damage done by this policy once and for all.”
“To think of the MPP as a mere legal system that is litigated in the courts is to live alienated from the pain of thousands of migrant families who were exploited and kidnapped during its implementation,” said Elket Rodríguez, Fellowship Southwest’s Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy and Missions Specialist. “The determination of the Fifth Circuit allowing for the reinstatement of the MPP only benefits criminal organizations in the cities of northern Mexico who will now have a steady group of vulnerable migrants to exploit and abuse with the consent of U.S. courts. This is beyond immoral, it is abhorrent. The Biden administration must pursue any legal recourse to prevent its implementation and protect the human right to seek asylum.”