US President Joe Biden’s administration moves to restart another controversial anti-migrant policy, implemented by his predecessor Donald Trump, as soon as next week.
His administration is set to reinstate the “remain in Mexico” program that was created by the Donald Trump administration to force non-Mexican asylum seekers to stay in Mexico until their immigration court dates in the US.
Biden suspended the program upon taking office and terminated it months later. But back in August, the Supreme Court ruled that the policy must be reinstated.
The program, formally known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), will be reimplemented “as promptly as possible” to be “in compliance with the court order,” said a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson.
Trump used the MPP to return 70,000 migrants to Mexico’s border towns, which are described by rights advocates as a dead end for people waiting for their US court hearings in squalid refugee tent camps.
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Rights activists warned that the program endangered people’s lives by requiring them to wait in border cities plagued by criminal gangs, drugs, and violence.
Biden’s plan to return the MPP policy puts his administration on track to have two major Trump-era policies in place at the southern border by the end of the year.
Rising border crossings have also created a political headache for the Democratic president, who stands accused of inciting a chaotic migrant rush on the US border with Mexico, by reversing many harsh aspects of the Trump-era immigration agenda.
