During Thursday’s CNN presidential debate, former President Trump hailed the success of the “Remain in Mexico” policy, a controversial border policy that Trump has repeatedly touted and that many conservatives have called for in a potential second Trump term.
During the debate, Trump repeatedly criticized President Biden for the ongoing crisis at the southern border and attempted to contrast his own record with Biden’s. Central to Trump’s efforts to reduce migration numbers has been the implementation of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), commonly known as “Remain in Mexico.”
The program, which was expanded to multiple ports of entry in 2019, included an agreement with Mexico to set up tent courts where migrants could apply for asylum and wait for their claims to be heard in Mexico, rather than being released into the United States.
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Former President Trump (left) and President Biden took part in the first debate of the 2024 presidential election at CNN studios in Atlanta on Thursday. (Javin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“[Biden] “I’m done with ‘Remain in Mexico.’ I’m done with ‘Capture and Release.’ I made it ‘Capture and Release’ in Mexico, not ‘Capture and Release’ here. We’ve done a lot with Mexico, we’ve done some hard negotiations, and it’s all for naught,” Trump said Thursday.
Supporters of the program said that wherever it was applied, or implemented, it effectively ended the “capture and release” approach of releasing migrants into the U.S. to await their hearings. Only about 70,000 migrants were sent back under the program, but conservatives stress that it reduced contact with migrants over the summer and into the pre-COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.
The Biden administration halted the program in 2021, arguing that the policy was ineffective, exposed migrants to poor conditions and danger in Mexico and led to the establishment of large migrant camps along the border while people waited for appointments, a claim that immigrant advocates also made.
“As [Homeland] Secretary [Alejandro] “MPP is deeply flawed, imposes unjustified human costs, and diverts resources and personnel from other priority efforts to secure our border,” Mayorkas said in a statement as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) moved to end the program in 2022.
Since then, the Biden administration has introduced a number of its own measures to regulate migration and ease pressure at the border following a massive influx of migrants that has surged in 2021. A centerpiece of that policy is the expansion of the CBP One app, which allows migrants to enter legally and make appointments for parole into the U.S. The app currently allows about 1,500 migrants per day to enter.
Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas recently said the number is as high as 500,000 per year, and that this is on top of other measures being taken to prevent migrants from crossing into the border.
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An unaccompanied minor walks toward a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle after crossing the border from Mexico on May 9, 2023, in El Paso, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)
“CBP One is not just an access point for humanitarian assistance in the United States. The number of people using CBP One is in addition to the 30,000 people using the programs in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. This is in addition to people using refugee programs in the Western Hemisphere, which have skyrocketed to unprecedented levels. This is in addition to people using our safe migration offices in Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Guatemala, and these safe migration offices are expanding,” he said.
The administration has also pointed to various examples of cooperation with Mexico, including its efforts to accept tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants each month and to combat human smuggling with countries, including Mexico. On Thursday, Biden touted cooperation with Mexico to stop fentanyl from entering the U.S.
“We are cracking down very hard on fentanyl precursors in all Asian countries, and Mexico is working with us to make sure they don’t have the technology to synthesize fentanyl,” he said.
But large backlogs at the border are still being reported, and advocates say the administration’s efforts to block asylum for people who cross the border illegally are inhumane and that more steps are needed to allow more migrants in.
“Long wait times and uncertain appointment allocations have forced many asylum seekers to make the risky decision to cross into the U.S. without an appointment, putting their lives at risk and potentially losing their asylum status due to the asylum ban,” it said. Recent Reports Amnesty International said:
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The group argues the app has technical barriers and other limitations, such as limited appointments being randomly allocated.
“CBP One applications turn the legal right to seek asylum into a lottery system dependent on chance,” said Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “Asylum seekers could be denied safety and protection in the United States simply because they may not be able to get an interview.”
From this perspective, a return to the “remain in Mexico” measure would make the situation worse for asylum seekers, especially if a Republican administration were to halt parole bookings through CBP One.
But advocates say allowing migrants creates more demand, and the key to easing border backlogs is to eliminate the factors that draw them in.
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Any return to the “Remain in Mexico” policy would face a major hurdle in gaining cooperation from Mexico, which the Trump administration secured in 2019, but the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs has since stated that it would not cooperate with any reintroduction of the MPP.
