Under its 2019 “Remain in Mexico” policy, the Trump administration has forcibly sent over 55,000 asylum seekers back to Mexico to await their U.S. court hearings. Although the Trump administration has promoted this arrangement as a reasonable and humane alternative to detention here, nothing could be further from the truth. The policy, ironically called the “Mexico Protection Protocol” (MPP), has resulted in a manufactured humanitarian crisis on our southern border of unprecedented scale.
As a direct result of this policy, thousands of migrant families must cram into makeshift camps and overcrowded, inadequate shelters in Mexican border towns, where they must wait, sometimes for months, in squalid, unsafe conditions. As documented by multiple human rights and aid organizations, camp residents live in constant fear of rape, kidnapping, and violence perpetrated by local cartels. Moreover, due to the now additional burden of having to ask first for asylum in Mexico, very few are allowed to even request asylum here.
The ACLU and others are legally challenging the “Remain in Mexico” policy; their case currently is before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and will likely end up before the Supreme Court. But in the meantime, asylum seekers face a terrible choice: endure dangerous conditions in Mexico, or “self deport” back to the dangerous conditions they fled in the first place.
Unfortunately, the media and especially members of Congress have paid far less attention to the plight of asylum-seeking refugees, now that they are no longer crowded into U.S. detention facilities, but rather are suffering in Mexico.
ACTION:
Ask lawmakers to do all they can to call attention to this inhumane policy and the shameful humanitarian crisis it has spawned.
Senator Patty Murray: 202-224-2621 / 206-553-5545
Senator Maria Cantwell: 202-224-3441 / 206-220-6400
Rep. Pramila Jayapal: 202-225-3106 / 206-674-0040
Rep. Adam Smith: 202-225-8901 / 425-793-5180
Script:
Hello. My name is [name], and I’m calling from [city, zip]. I am deeply upset by the Trump administration’s treatment of asylum seekers, and am calling to ask that [REP] forcefully and publicly speak out against the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. In less than a year, this policy has created a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions at our southern border, forcing thousands of adult migrants and their children into squalid and unsafe camps. I am disappointed that there have been no widely publicized congressional fact-finding trips or reports on this tragedy and urge [REP] to call for these kinds of important congressional oversight actions.
Background:
Note: Last month the House Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation, and Operations held one little-publicized hearing on the impacts of Remain in Mexico, as described in the last link below.
https://apnews.com/337b139ed4fa4d208b93d491364e04da
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/01/world/mexico-asylum-seekers-letters/index.html
