Refugee Congress Statement on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs on its January 16, 2025 Hearing: “Remain in Mexico”
Refugee Congress is a national, nonpartisan organization built and led by refugees, asylum seekers and asylees, and other people who have been forcibly displaced, and advocates for the protection, well-being, and dignity of all who have been displaced and seek safety, including those at our southern border. Refugee Congress urges the Committee to reject any proposal to reinstate the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico (RMX)” policy - a policy that has proven to be unlawful, ineffective, and dangerous for our most vulnerable neighbors - and to instead affirm the need to invest in local communities’ capacity and resources to welcome newcomers, and to support compassionate and humane immigration and reception pathways and systems that do not turn away - or - punish seeking safety.
The Committee and Congress must uphold our moral and legal obligations, per U.S. and international laws. Refugee Congress has opposed this policy and anti-asylum measures across administrations, and on multiple occasions. Initiated by the Trump administration in 2019, and temporarily reinstated under the Biden administration, the RMX policy (or also called “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP)) forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers to wait in dangerous conditions in Mexico while their asylum claims were processed in the United States – placing them in direct danger of violence, extortion, and kidnappings. The policy drastically restricted access to counsel, impeded the ability of asylum seekers to attend and participate in their court hearings, wasted government resources, subjected asylum seekers to violent attacks, and violated U.S. and international law and principles of non-refoulement by returning people to the persecution and torture in Mexico and subjecting them to onward illegal return to their countries of persecution - it was a counterproductive, failed policy and should never be reimplemented.
While there are legitimate concerns regarding the effectiveness of current processes and security at the border, the Committee should pursue humane, sustainable, and effective solutions to those challenges at the border. Some solutions include: support existing systems and launch new support systems to meet immediate and long-term needs of people seeking safety; create more fair, effective, and timely immigration processes to reduce backlogs, improve fairness, and increase efficiency; and strengthen existing pathways and create new pathways that complement robust asylum access. Humane approaches like those noted above can be an effective way to address concerns about border security and processes.
The Committee should commit to protecting our most vulnerable neighbors rather than putting at risk individuals and families seeking safety in direct paths of danger. People who were turned away under the RMX policy were not only deprived of their right to legal counsel, but were also targeted, kidnapped, and tortured by cartels who profited on the opportunity to exploit those turned back at the U.S. border. Over 2,500 attacks were documented against people enrolled in RMX, with many targeted because they were migrants or due to their race, gender, sexual orientation, and other protected characteristics. Reimplementing the policy would inflict even greater crimes, as targeting of asylum seekers and migrants in Mexico only continues to escalate. The Department of Homeland Security concluded in 2021, RMX imposed “unjustifiable human costs” and had “inherent problems...that no amount of resources can sufficiently fix.”
Ultimately, the Committee should honor and uphold the values reflected by majority of Americans who support access to asylum at the U.S. southern border. There is wide bipartisan support for welcoming policies for people seeking safety in the United States. The Committee must turn to policies that strengthen asylum protections and invest in the capacity to humanely welcome and process asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, and immigrants that recognizes their inherent dignity. The solution must not be to turn people away and send them back to life-threatening situations in their home countries. We must reject policies like Remain in Mexico and instead identify and implement solutions that protect people, families, and children. We must invest resources that strengthen our communities’ capacity to welcome. We must be the example and leading the solution to a growing humanitarian crisis. Refugee Congress, whose membership is fully resettled refugees, asylees, and people who were forced to leave their homes due to war, persecution, and violence, is committed to welcoming refugees, asylum seekers, and all who come to the U.S. seeking safety, and we call on our elected leaders to do the same.
