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Biden Administration Suspends 'Remain In Mexico' Policy

Carlos' youngest daughter plays with the clothesline in the courtyard of the Buen Samaritano Migrant Shelter as Marta Esquivel pretends to play a violin on Sept. 30, 2020 in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Esquivel has taken care of residents in the shelter since the 2018 immigration wave and throughout the pandemic.
Paul Ratje for KERA
Carlos' youngest daughter plays with the clothesline in the courtyard of the Buen Samaritano Migrant Shelter as Marta Esquivel pretends to play a violin on Sept. 30, 2020 in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Esquivel has taken care of residents in the shelter since the 2018 immigration wave and throughout the pandemic.

The Biden administration will no longer place asylum seekers in the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, a Trump-era policy that requires migrants to wait in Mexico as their cases play out in U.S. immigration court.

The Department of Homeland Security announced the change late on Inauguration Day.

Over the past two years, tens of thousands of asylum seekers who arrived at the southern border were given a U.S. court date and then sent back into Mexico, which often forced them into dangerous living conditions as they waited to make their cases. But starting Jan. 21, the federal government will no longer place new people in what came to be known as the “Remain in Mexico” program.

There is still a question of what will happen to the thousands of migrants already in the program, whose asylum cases are still pending. Their hearings have been postponed indefinitely, due to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving many stranded in shelters and makeshift tents along the border, in a state of legal limbo.

“Current COVID-19 non-essential travel restrictions, both at the border and in the region, remain in place at this time,” DHS said in a statement. “All current MPP participants should remain where they are, pending further information from U.S. government officials.”

Immigration lawyers and advocates have called for officials to allow migrants in MPP into the U.S., to wait out their asylum proceedings with relatives or other sponsors.

While the Biden administration is suspending the “Remain in Mexico program,” a public health order remains in place that allows immigration officials to rapidly expel asylum seekers and other migrants at the border during the pandemic.

Mallory Falk is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Got a tip? Email Mallory at Mfalk@kera.org. You can follow Mallory on Twitter @MalloryFalk.

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Mallory Falk was WWNO's first Education Reporter. Her four-part series on school closures received an Edward R. Murrow award. Prior to joining WWNO, Mallory worked as Communications Director for the youth leadership non-profit Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools. She fell in love with audio storytelling as a Middlebury College Narrative Journalism Fellow and studied radio production at the Transom Story Workshop.