With Re-Implementation of MPP, President Biden Fundamentally Betrays Our Obligations to Those Seeking Asylum

New York, NY - Today, President Joseph R. Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced plans to reimplement the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) or Remain in Mexico program by mid-November. Initially implemented by President Trump, MPP sent roughly 70,000 people fleeing persecution to unsafe areas of Mexico while they awaited their hearings. The reinstatement of the policy comes after a Texas district court ordered the Biden administration to “reinstate MPP in good faith.” Legal experts decried the court’s failure to examine critical facts and the clear humanitarian impact of MPP

Murad Awawdeh, Executive Director, New York Immigration Coalition:

“With the reinstatement of the brutal Remain in Mexico policy, there is little to differentiate President Biden’s border and asylum policies from those of his predecessor. At this point, no one can deny the awful human cost of MPP. But rather than grapple with the obvious suffering of thousands of people fleeing political instability, unfathomable abuses, and the devastation of climate change, the Biden White House has broken a core campaign promise to undo the damages of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. In doing so, they have doubled down on their predecessor’s blinkered view of America, immigration, and our asylum system. The New York Immigration Coalition calls on DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to immediately issue a new memorandum terminating MPP. There is no need for one more family to suffer.”    

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