White House Renews Bid to End ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy

The Biden administration on Friday launched a second bid to end a Trump-era policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court, while also reaffirming a commitment to reinstate it under court order.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the “Remain in Mexico” policy likely contributed to a drop in illegal border crossings in 2019 but with “substantial and unjustifiable human costs” to asylum seekers who were exposed to violence while waiting in Mexico.

The announcement came more than two months after a federal judge ordered that the policy be reinstated “in good faith,” while leaving an opening for the administration to try again to justify ending it.

The administration said earlier this month that it expected to reinstate the policy, known officially as “Migrant Protection Protocols,” around mid-November, subject to Mexican government approval. {snip}

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About 70,000 asylum seekers have been subject to the policy, which then-President Trump introduced in January 2019 and his successor, Joe Biden, suspended on his first day in office. Mayorkas ended the policy in June after an internal review, saying it achieved “mixed effectiveness.”

Illegal border crossings fell sharply after Mexico, facing Trump’s threat of higher tariffs, acquiesced in 2019 to the policy’s rapid expansion. {snip}

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