Hope Border Institute Reports on Devastating Impacts of Remain in Mexico Policy

BY ISN STAFF | January 30, 2020

On the one year anniversary of the implementation of the cruel and deadly Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), or Remain in Mexico policy, the Hope Border Institute published two new reports detailing the effects of this policy on the borderlands community and on migrants returned to Ciudad Juárez.

The Remain in Mexico Situation Report provides original research obtained through monitoring of the immigration courts, countless interviews with migrants returned under Remain in Mexico, research conducted with Mexican asylum seekers in refugee camps around the international bridges and with migrants in shelters and on the streets of Ciudad Juárez.

The Report on the Human Rights Violations of Migrants in Mexico, prepared in collaboration with Stanford Law School Mills Legal Clinic, details the human rights violations in Mexico as a result of Remain in Mexico and the failure of Mexico to guarantee the rights of migrants under the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Key research findings include that the US government is returning migrants to one of the states with the highest homicide rates in Mexico, including a large number of families, children and infants. The studies also find that migrants subject to Remain in Mexico and policies like metering are dying from lack of access to adequate health care. Furthermore, research finds that Mexican authorities may be complicit in enabling genocide through collaboration with Remain in Mexico.

“People throughout the country should be alarmed by what the government is doing in their name at the border by returning asylum seekers to dangerous and life-threatening conditions in northern Mexico. On this grim one-year anniversary, Congress needs to take action to end Remain in Mexico. Out of sight and out of mind is not a moral option.” said Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute.

The Hope Border Institute brings the perspective of Catholic social teaching to bear on the realities unique to the U.S.-Mexico border region. Through a robust program of research and policy work, leadership development and action, Hope Border Institute works to build justice and deepen solidarity across the borderlands.

Take Action: Join with ISN, the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, and the Jesuit Conference Office of Justice and Ecology in calling for an end to the MPP/Remain in Mexico Policy!