WHAT IS REMAIN IN MEXICO?
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What Is Remain in Mexico?
Migrants at the Tijuana border.
Joebeth Terriquez/EPA
Last updated March 2, 2025 xx:xx pm (EST)
“Remain in Mexico”, also known as the Migration Protection Protocols, is a US policy initiated under the first Trump administration in 2019. The Department of Homeland Security implemented the policy by claiming legal authority under Section 235 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which provides that the U.S. can return anyone entering the border to a contiguous border, i.e Mexico, while their asylum cases are pending. However, in practice, less than 1% of asylum seekers who were returned to Mexico were granted asylum. MPP is intended to address the security and humanitarian crisis on the Southern border. Specifically it aims to combat organized crime and human and drug trafficking. The program was unsuccessful in curbing crime, fentanyl drug seizures have increased by 480% and the trafficking industry is booming. Additionally, according to a 2022 U.S House of Representatives hearing with the Committee on Homeland Security, there were “1,500 documented reports of kidnapping, torture, murder, rape, and assault amongst the 70,000 migrants enrolled into MPP.” This suggests that the MPP was neither effective nor “protective” of the migrant seeking to enter the United States legally. Now, under the current Trump administration, the DHS reportedly re-started the program as soon as Trump took office (as by 2022 the program had largely ended during the Biden administration). Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has responded with an acceptance of the migrants who are returned to Mexico under humanitarian conditions, and has “pledged to repatriate foreign migrants—those forced into Mexico despite not being Mexican citizens”.
Introduction
President Trump’s 2019 policy aimed to deter what he called “fraudulent migrant cases”. MPP attempts to do so by forcing migrants to remain within the borders of Mexico while they await a hearing for their asylum claims. The Biden administration attempted to end the remain-in-Mexico policy and even received authority from the United States Supreme Court to do so, but a federal judge blocked the administration from ending the policy.Later, the Biden Administration also received accusations of not enforcing MPP to the extent required by the law. With Trump back in office, his second administration promises to reinstate the MPP, exacerbating the issue for migrants by forcing thousands of people to wait in Mexico for cases that are likely to never become available.
According to immigrant rights advocates, “Remain in Mexico” creates dangerous conditions for vulnerable migrants, with claims of separating families. The Human Rights Watch states, ‘Remain in Mexico’ sends asylum seekers to face risks of kidnapping, extortion, rape, and other abuses in Mexico and violates their right to seek asylum in the United States, which is granted by the Refugee Act of 1980”. Immigrant rights organizations believe that “Remain in Mexico” is detrimental to people who are simply searching for a better life, and that it should be abolished to ensure that people trying to achieve the American dream are not put in harm’s way while waiting for an asylum trial.
Research Overview
The Trump Administration’s aim’s for “Remain in Mexico” are to deter fraudulent asylum claims and reduce crime associated with migrants, i.e gang violence and drug trafficking, specifically fentanyl—despite the fact that a large body of evidence shows that immigrants are significantly less likely to commit crimes than native born Americans. While proponents may claim that sending supposed criminal migrants and drug traffickers to Mexico while their cases are processed will make American citizens more secure, in reality there is significant evidence to show that this policy directly returns migrants to conditions they were trying to escape, placing them in precarious and violent conditions. There are thousands of cases of reported rape, murder and kidnapping of migrants returned to Mexico. There have been reports of family separation (although this was against official policy), and inability to receive legal counsel and representation. Without the ability to receive legal counsel, many migrants had to represent themselves, leaving them to navigate some of the most challenging legal frameworks on their own.
The Biden Administration recognized the harms against migrants caused by MPP, placing the program under review for termination by an executive order from the Biden Administration in 2021, for the extreme harm caused to migrants and the backlogs in immigration courts.
In January of 2025, the Trump administration ended the CBP-One app that previously allowed thousands of migrants to apply for asylum virtually from Mexico. Without the CBP-One app, it is unclear what the lives of migrants who were awaiting their asylum application now look like. Once the CBP-One app was cancelled, “an estimated 300,000 migrants remain in Mexico who were waiting for their appointments through the app.”
Mexico’s response does not provide any more certainty for migrants, especially given President Sheinbaum’s pledges to “repatriate” migrants. This suggests that she will continue the last administration's coordinated efforts to address the influx of migrants in the U.S.-Mexico border by returning non-Mexican migrants to their home countries. Most recently, on January 28th, President Sheinbaum confirmed that “Mexico has received 4,000 deportees from the U.S. since Trump took office, and that non-Mexican citizens were among those deported.” This demonstrates that “Remain in Mexico” has led to the continued deportation of migrants, and that Mexico will accept U.S. deportees.
The existing pathway for non-Mexican migrants who remain in Mexico is to apply through the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR) for refugee status. Most likely because of the end of the CBP-One app, the Mexican asylum system is now backlogged, with migrants waiting up to three days in line to receive an appointment at Mexican offices. According to on the ground reporting by Univision, many migrants residing in Mexico City currently live in limbo in make-shift shelters of tents and scrap metal, or in shelters organized by humanitarian organizations. Their only current choices seem to be applying for humanitarian statuses in Mexico or returning to their home countries.
Conclusion
“Remain in Mexico” was introduced with the professed goal of deterring fraudulent asylum claims and the entrance of gang or gang-affiliated individuals, as well as putting an end to the entrance of illegal drugs like fentanyl into the United States. Although the policy could be said to have been created on socially acceptable grounds, the Trump administration has weaponized this policy to punish noncriminal migrants in search of a better life for themselves and their families in the United States Now, it remains unclear if asylum will even be possible, since another of Trump’s executive orders suspended asylum at the end of January. The remain in Mexico policy poses a severe threat to migrants who wait in Mexico for their hearings, as they run the risk of kidnapping, extortion, rape, and other abuses in Mexico that violates their rights, as several civil rights groups have alluded to. Trump’s second administration has exacerbated the issue and is putting migrants in the face of even more danger. and shows no signs of getting better for the dignity of migrants.