The Supreme Court agreed with the Joe Biden government this Thursday and allowed it to end the immigration program known as
Stay in Mexico
, created by former president Donald Trump and which forces asylum seekers to wait in the neighboring country until they are resolved. their cases, which can take months or years.
This immigration policy may thus end as established by the rule issued by the Department of Homeland Security in October 2021. However, Title 42 remains in force, the measure imposed by Trump in March 2020 at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic for which asylum seekers can be immediately expelled for public health reasons.
How 'Stay in Mexico' affects migrants
The policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), was put in place by the Trump Administration in January 2019. Biden suspended it when he arrived at the White House in 2021, claiming it was inhumane due to the violence faced by migrants in Mexico.
An asylum seeker hugs an immigration volunteer upon arrival in the United States on February 26, 2021 in Brownsville, Texas.
Her group was one of the first to enter the country as part of the withdrawal of the Joe Biden Administration from the "Stay in Mexico" program.
John Moore/Getty Images
In the two years that the program was running, almost
70,000 migrants
were returned to Mexico.
Along the Mexican side of the border, tent camps of those waiting for their chance to return to the country then sprang up, and human rights groups reported that hundreds of asylum seekers were kidnapped, raped, tortured and assaulted while waiting. to enter the United States.
Likewise, they denounced that with the program migrants were not guaranteed due process in their cases.
[The members of the new caravan that circulates through the south of Mexico receive transit visas]
The lack of a lawyer, combined with the danger and insecurity faced by people in border cities, made it nearly impossible for anyone subject to MPP to successfully obtain asylum, says a report by the American Immigration Council, a nonprofit organization. of profit of support to migrants.
In February 2021, the federal government began to receive 'Stay in Mexico' migrants at the entrance gates.
By mid-May, more than 10,000 people had been admitted.
Biden then expanded the eligibility criteria, including those who had a deportation order for missing a court date.
I filed my asylum case under the 'Stay in Mexico' program.
Can I move the court to Miami?
Jan. 6, 202201:32
But the states of Texas and Mississippi sued the federal government to reinstate the program on the grounds that it would have greatly reduced the wave of migrants at the border, specifically arrivals from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras by up to 80%.
In August 2021, a federal judge initially agreed with Texas and Missouri, indicating that the Department of Homeland Security did not offer a sufficiently detailed explanation of why it wanted to abandon the policy, and ordered the reactivation of the immigration program, a decision that the Government of Biden appealed to the Supreme Court.
[Alone, exhausted and thirsty: this is how they found a 5-year-old migrant boy at the border]
In December 2021, the federal government had to reestablish the program, and since then the entry of migrants waiting in Mexico for their cases has not been admitted.
The debate before the Supreme Court
At hearings in the case in April, Conservative justices (the majority, six out of nine) seemed inclined to consider ending the policy.
Several judges were skeptical of the arguments of the Republican states that appealed the Biden decision.
Texas Attorney General Judd Stone said in his arguments in court that federal immigration law requires the government to detain people who enter the country illegally or return them to Mexico.
Only a limited number of people, something that must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, can remain on US soil.
Stone said the government did not screen the thousands of immigrants who were allowed to wait in the United States carefully enough.
"I can't take it anymore": in tears, a migrant in a caravan to the US complains about the conditions of the journey
June 16, 202201:46
The attorney general, Elizabeth Prelogar, spoke on behalf of the federal government, defending that the cases of migrants were reviewed individually as required by law.
New plan to streamline asylum applications
Meanwhile, on May 31, a Biden plan to expedite asylum applications came into force: the authorities will have 90 days to resolve the cases.
Upon receipt of the application, the officer will assess what is known as credible fear and will interview the applicant during the first 30 days.
Afterward, officials will have 60 days to deny or grant asylum.
[“I live every day without knowing what will happen”: four dreamers demand immigration reform after 10 years of DACA]
If the ruling is favorable, they will be able to remain in the country and opt for permanent residence one year after the decision.
If the asylum officer rejects an applicant's request, the migrant can request a reconsideration of their case with the Citizenship and Immigration Services, within seven days of the resolution of their case.
This measure takes effect shortly after a federal judge prohibited the president from ending Title 42, the policy imposed by Trump during the pandemic in 2020 by which asylum seekers can be immediately removed for public health reasons. .
The rules of the old and the new 'Stay in Mexico'
Under the Trump program, people who arrive at the southern border and apply for asylum (either at a port of entry or after crossing the border) receive notices to appear in immigration court and are sent back to Mexico.
They are instructed to return to a specific port of entry on the date and time of their next hearing.
"The shelters are full": migrants sleep on the street in Mexico after being returned by the US
Dec 27, 202101:43
The experience with the first part of the implementation of 'Stay in Mexico' also shows that the program did not provide due process to migrants, activists say.
As of December 2020, of the 42,012 MPP cases that had been completed, only 521 people received relief in immigration court, according to a report by the American Immigration Council.
Due to the pandemic, in March 2020, pending migrant hearings were suspended.
However, the program continued to be implemented: the Trump Administration placed more than 6,000 people in the MPP from April 2020 to January 2021. These were mainly those people who could not be “expelled” quickly under the order. public health law known as Title 42.
[Federal Judge Bans Approval of New DACA Requests but Allows Continued Renewal of Existing Ones]
The Biden administration began a process of “downsizing” the program after taking office, which included admitting nearly 13,000 people who had been waiting in Mexico and allowing them to seek asylum within the United States.
This stopped in August 2021 when a judge ordered the show reinstated.
When the Biden Administration reinstated it in December 2021, it changed some rules.
First,
he expanded who can be removed
: all citizens of the Western Hemisphere, except for Mexicans.
This includes Haitians and other Caribbean citizens who were previously exempt.
Although it also excluded people "with a known physical or mental health problem," it includes those with "a disability or pregnancy-related medical condition."
Also for those people with particular vulnerabilities given their advanced age and who are at risk of suffering violence in Mexico due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Government returns 36 migrants stranded in Mexico for court hearings in the US
Jan. 4, 202200:30
The most significant change made is an expansion of the process by which someone can be removed from the program
due to fear of persecution or torture in Mexico
.
CBP officers must ask everyone in the program about their fear of returning, and migrants must only show that there is a "reasonable possibility" that they will experience violent crimes.
Individuals will also not be eligible for this program if they seek asylum at a port of entry, because Title 42 is still in effect and ports of entry are still closed to asylum seekers.