Migration to the USA
The ‘Stay in Mexico’ program – implemented by Donald Trump and highly criticized by human rights organizations – may finally be repealed by US President Joe Biden. “It is a first step towards the reestablishment of a migration system that treats people with the dignity that each one deserves,” the UNHCR United States spokesman told France 24.
Not without difficulty, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, is about to close another door of the Trump era. The objective: to give several thousand migrants the possibility of continuing their asylum applications on US soil and no longer on the other side of the border, in a hostile Mexico.
On Monday, a federal judge in Texas annulled his order to restore the “Stay in Mexico” program, which opens the way for a suppression of the measure by the Executive of Joe Biden. What will be done “quickly and in an orderly manner,” promised the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a few hours after the magistrate’s decision was known.
“The program is endemicly flawed, imposes unjustifiable human costs, and draws resources and personnel away from other priority efforts to secure our border,” the DHS added.
IOM, @AcnurMexico Y @UNICEFMexico We are attentive to its effective completion and remain committed to children, adolescents, women and men in a situation of mobility, as well as to shelters and civil society organizations that provide them with humanitarian assistance.
— IOM Mexico (@OIM_Mexico) August 9, 2022
What does that decision mean for migrants seeking asylum in the United States? In practice, it means that those waiting in Mexico will be allowed to enter the United States for their court dates. Also, there will be no new enrollment under that program.
From the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), this announcement is “very welcome”, and symbolizes “an important step towards the reconstruction of an efficient and humane asylum system on this border”, declares to France 24 its spokesman Chris Boian from Washington.
A first step full of illusion
The ‘Stay in Mexico’ program, officially and quite misleadingly called ‘Migrant Protection Protocols’ (MPP), was launched in 2019 under then-President Donald Trump, as part of his zero tolerance policy. towards immigrants.
Since its launch, the initiative has forced more than 65,000 asylum seekers – the majority from Nicaragua, Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela – back across the border, where they wait in squalid and often dangerous conditions in border towns that reach the United States. discourages visiting its own citizens, due to violence.
In an interview with France 24, the president of the association ‘Helping them to succeed’ told how the implementation of the MPP was experienced in the border city of Matamoros: “It was terrible. Matamoros was not prepared to receive a migration of this nature. There were no shelters for people to rest or eat.” Glady Cañas also mentions “an endless number of illnesses suffered by both adults and children, due to the unsanitary conditions of their accommodation.”
A reality that could last for months or even years, while asylum applications were processed, and that was exacerbated in 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic, which further delayed the work of Justice.
The list of border scourges raised by the Matamoros association also includes “a lack of security, kidnappings, drugs, prostitution… Not to mention the people who are still missing.”
‘Human Rights First’ documented 1,544 cases of murder, rape, torture, kidnapping or other aggressions of migrants returned to the border under the MPP, between January 2019 and 2021.
On the other hand, from ‘Justice Action Center’, an organization that litigates in favor of immigrants, they specify to France 24 that they are ravages that further harmed “indigenous, Afro and LGBTIQ + migrants”.
“A massive humanitarian catastrophe”
“Since seeking asylum is a legal and human right, the MPP has been a massive humanitarian catastrophe that has cost lives, and inflicted immeasurable suffering on people, who are already fleeing for their lives,” insists Tasha. Moro, the communication director of the ‘Justice Action Center’.
“Please remember this is not just a legal game of ping-pong. What is at issue is the sacred right of people fleeing violence to be safe and seek asylum as our laws require,” he tweeted. its president, Karen Tumlin.
Please remember that this is not just a legal game of ping pong. At issue is the sacred right of people to be safe who are fleeing violence & to seek asylum as our laws require.
— Karen Tumlin (@KarenTumlin) August 9, 2022
It is also a position taken by Chris Boian, of the UN Refugee Agency: taking into account that the thousands of people who are crowded into these makeshift camps have faces and names. “From Acnur, we are not saying that the situations of all these people deserve asylum. The request for asylum should not be confused with the obligation to grant it. But yes, everyone has the right to be in a safe place to tell their story and be heard. Boian insists.
And the UNHCR spokesman insists on remembering that among these migrants “there are people who need international protection for their lives, because they are fleeing violence, persecution or war. And for these people, the elimination of the MPP is crucial.”
A victory for Biden, more than for migrants
This is the second time that measure has been suspended. Indeed, shortly after taking office, Joe Biden attempted in February 2021 to make good on his campaign promise to end the border measure as part of what he called a “more humane approach to immigration.”
But, in response to a lawsuit led by Texas, the Courts forced to reinstate the measure last December, arguing the cost of receiving migrants through this border. The case ended up reaching the Supreme Court, which on June 30 agreed with the president.
However, although this second attempt to end the MPP program is a notable legal victory for migrants, it does not represent a complete change in the direction of immigration policy at the border.
And the activists insist that its suppression does not mean that there will be free transit for migrants to the United States: “People who had registered with the MPP will now be processed according to normal immigration processing procedures, that is, placed in custody or held in an immigration detention center” in most cases, recalls Tasha Moro of ‘Justice Action Center’.
On the other hand, Monday’s announcement does not mean that applications are processed more quickly or with less thoroughness: “These are processes that take time, and that require evidence to defend their asylum applications,” warns Glady Cañas.
The ‘Title 42’, another battle of pro-immigrant activists
In fact, the MPP is not currently the only obstacle for immigration candidates. For example, the so-called ‘Title 42’ is still in force, which allows border authorities to expel immigrants without giving them the opportunity to apply for asylum. This policy was also implemented under Donald Trump, with the aim, supposedly, of limiting the spread of Covid-19, “when experience has shown us that the protection of public health and the protection of the human rights of asylum seekers they are not incompatible,” says Chris Boian.
For ‘Justice Action Center’, “ending ‘Title 42’ is the next crucial step in restoring our asylum system to what it was before the Trump Administration.”
In conclusion, “this suppression of the program does not respond per se to the broader needs of displaced people in this region,” the UNHCR spokesperson tells us. “But creating sustainable conditions so that people are no longer forced to flee their countries, addressing the challenges of migration in general, and of displacement forced in particular, of course, it’s not going to happen overnight.
At the moment, both Acnur and Justice Action Center are waiting for more details about what exactly the end of “Stay in Mexico” will mean in practice. However, in the United States, the decision has already sparked debate on how it can affect the already beleaguered Mexican immigration system, especially a few months before the mid-term elections, where migration will surely be one of the strong campaign issues. .
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