Tweet or Post to Facebook: There is No Way for the Biden Administration to Reform MPP
Last week, we went to Laredo, TX to visit the tent courts set up there to process people arriving at the border. What we found there was shocking, and we’re hoping you’ll help us spread the word using these messages we wrote.
Under the Trump administration’s so-called “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP), approximately 70,000 asylum seekers were returned to danger in Mexico while waiting for their sham court proceedings. The Biden administration attempted to end the program but was ordered by a federal court to reimplement it. And in December 2021, the Department of Homeland Security restarted MPP, providing guidance on the ways it would attempt to improve the program.
In two of the four border cities where MPP hearings take place, judges hear cases by video teleconference from the court while asylum seekers appear in a tent facility at the port of entry. We visited the “tent court” in Laredo, Texas, and witnessed how these superficial changes have failed to resolve the inherent flaws in the program. Asylum seekers continue to face danger and harsh conditions in Mexico, struggle to find attorneys to represent them, and access the resources they need to prepare their cases. At the same time, members of the public attempting to exercise their legal right to observe these hearings face significant obstacles in doing so.
Please share these social posts to amplify what we saw in Laredo and call for an immediate end to MPP. Click the share buttons to help us spread the word.
Immigration court is legally open to the public. But advocates recently were told by CBP they could not attend and only gained access by trying 5 entrances. By that time, the hearing was over.
— American Immigration Council (@immcouncil) April 26, 2022
@DHSgov continues to try to hide these sham proceedings. #EndMPP #safenotstranded
Despite promises to improve legal access in MPP, those in the program with attorneys lack resources to communicate with them to prepare their case.
— American Immigration Council (@immcouncil) April 26, 2022
One attorney reported a government attorney using the room while their client was making a legal call. #EndMPP #safenotstranded
On a trip to Laredo, TX, advocates learned of 59 asylum seekers in MPP, only 6 of which had attorneys.
— American Immigration Council (@immcouncil) April 26, 2022
There aren’t enough immigration attorneys at the border to meet the need. And it’s almost impossible to win asylum without one, especially in MPP. #EndMPP #safenotstranded
Biden admin guidance exempts people with health issues or disabilities from MPP but advocates recently witnessed a woman in a wheelchair in the program.
— American Immigration Council (@immcouncil) April 26, 2022
The truth is that all asylum seekers are vulnerable to harm in Mexican border cities. #EndMPP #safenotstranded
An Immigration Justice Campaign volunteer reported that her client & children were kidnapped for 3 days while subjected to MPP.
— American Immigration Council (@immcouncil) April 26, 2022
She was separated from one son during their escape, & her younger son later narrowly avoided a second kidnapping attempt. #EndMPP #safenotstranded
There have been 10,000 documented acts of violence against migrants in Mexico under the Biden administration.
— American Immigration Council (@immcouncil) April 26, 2022
Violence in Mexican border town Nuevo Laredo led to restrictions for U.S. personnel, yet asylum seekers must travel through it to hearings: https://t.co/UepeO0333O