U.S. policies including Title 42, the ill-named Migrant Protection Protocols (more often called “Remain in Mexico”), and most recently, the Biden Circumvention of Lawful Pathways Rule (“Asylum Ban”) put people seeking asylum and other migrants in grave danger.
Human Rights First tracked reports of over 16,000 asylum seeker and migrant survivors of kidnapping, murder, torture, rape, and other serious harms while blocked in, expelled to, or returned to Mexico under these policies. These documented attacks represent just a fraction of the violent harm that people seeking asylum and migrants have likely faced in Mexico.
Asylum Ban
On May 11, 2023, Circumvention of Lawful Pathways – the “Asylum Ban” – took effect. The Biden administration’s rule bars nearly all asylum seekers who fail to enter the United States at a Port of Entry with an appointment obtained through the inequitable smartphone app CBP One from seeking asylum.
Individuals subjected to the rule are also held to an unlawfully higher fear screening standard for their asylum claim to be heard, placing them at greater risk of return to persecution.
Asylum Ban
Harms tracker – reported attacks against asylum seekers and migrants from May 19, 2023 to November 27, 2023
Trapped, Preyed Upon, and Punished: One Year of the Biden Administration Asylum Ban – May 2024
Inhumane and Counterproductive: Asylum Ban Inflicts Mounting Harm – a report on the many ways the ban inflicts harms and threatens lives – October 2023
Refugee Protection Travesty – July 2023
More reports and information on the Biden and Trump administrations’ bans.
Title 42
Title 42 is a public health authority misused by the federal government under the pretext of the COVID-19 pandemic between March 2020 and May 2023 to block people from seeking asylum at official ports of entry and expel from the United States asylum seekers and migrants.
Title 42
Harms tracker – reported attacks against asylum seekers and migrants from February 16, 2021 to December 15, 2022.
Human Rights Stain, Public Health Farce – a report on the misuse of Title 42 as a public health, border management, and human rights fiasco.
More reports and information on Title 42.
Remain in Mexico
Formally called the Migrant Protection Protocols, “Remain in Mexico” forced certain individuals seeking asylum to wait in Mexico while their claims were adjudicated by U.S. Immigration Courts.
From the initial implementation of “Remain in Mexico” by the Trump administration, when its use was expanded by the Biden administration, and until Biden’s Department of Homeland Security finally ended it, Human Rights First researched the effects of Remain in Mexico and advocated for its end.
Remain in Mexico
Harms tracker – reported attacks against asylum seekers and migrants from February 14, 2019 to December 15, 2020.
Fatally Flawed: “Remain in Mexico” Policy Should Never Be Renewed – a report on the dangerous impacts of the RMX policy.
More reports and information on Remain in Mexico.