Mexico says Trump-era border policy officially ended

Mexico’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said that the Trump-era policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) has officially come to an end, reported Reuters. 

The MPP, or “remain in Mexico policy” as the program was commonly referred to, was a 2019 policy that mandated that asylum seekers from Latin America had to wait in Mexico for the duration of their immigration proceedings.

During that time, Mexico provided asylum applicants with “all appropriate humanitarian protections for the duration of their stay,” according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s website. 

From January 2019 to January 2021, more than 71,000 asylum seekers, including thousands of children, were sent to Mexico under the program, according to Human Rights Watch. 

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court officially ended the Remain in Mexico program, after President Joe Biden promised to reverse the immigration policies of his predecessor shortly after taking office. One month later, the DHS announced it was ending the program and would no longer enroll new migrants in the program and would allow asylum seekers to enter the U.S.

The policy has “endemic flaws, imposes unjustifiable human costs, and pulls resources and personnel away from other priority efforts to secure our border,” the DHS said at the time. 

Mexico’s Foreign Ministry added that it will continue to guarantee the stay and protection of the migrants under the program that are currently in the country “at this stage.” An official at Mexico’s foreign ministry, Roberto Velasco, said that less than 100 MPP cases remained active.