Restrictive policies on the political asylum process

Over the past four years, the political asylum process has changed considerably under the administration of former President Donald Trump, who increased eligibility requirements and restrictions for asylum seekers through executive actions, Final Rules, and policies.

In the opinion of former President Trump, the scenarios to request political asylum were very wide when he took office and immigrants took advantage of the local immigration system, creating “false stories” or requesting political asylum for almost any situation.

Therefore, his government tried to narrow alternatives to request international protection in the US, increase requirements so that not everyone can request political asylum and, in many scenarios, immigration officials could reject applications without a court hearing.

Adding to that, during Trump’s term, agents from border forces such as CBP (Customs and Border Protection) had the right to deny asylum applications at the borders without the necessary training to understand the political asylum process. However, fortunately for asylum seekers, in September 2020, a federal judge barred border forces from intervening in asylum applications.

MPP – Brief explanation

Other than that, there is a policy that unleashed a gigantic controversy among immigrant communities, activist groups, immigration attorneys and immigrant rights advocates called MPP (Migrant Protection Protocols) or “Remain in Mexico”. Broadly speaking, this policy forces asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while they await responses to their immigration applications.

However, because most asylum seekers do not have basic resources or stable economic income, they currently live in temporary shelters in dangerous cities of Mexico, sometimes without access to medicine and other essential services amid the health crisis caused by the global Coronavirus pandemic, and at the mercy of local gangs.

Asylum seekers call on Biden’s government to act as soon as possible

The American population elected the Democratic candidate Joe Biden as the country’s 46th president, who took office on January 20, 2021. Asylum seekers have high expectations of the Biden administration as it takes a more welcoming stance on immigration and plans to reverse policies like MPP and expand benefits available to the most vulnerable immigrant communities.

In fact, a group of asylum seekers sent a letter (Spanish) to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, stating that there are thousands of immigrant families who have resided in Mexico for more than a year under the MPP policy and hope that the new government keeps its promises regarding immigration and protects vulnerable populations such as asylum seekers and refugees.

They ask the Biden government, apart from removing the MPP policy, to:

• Halt “expedited deportations or removals” on grounds of health emergency. They state that CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) has already confirmed that closing the borders does not reduce the sanitary risk.
• Hire trained personnel to expedite asylum applications and reduce the backlog of immigration cases in the US.
• Reform the immigration system to avoid the separation of immigrant families at the borders.

Thus, asylum seekers currently waiting in Mexico are calling on the Biden government to restructure the political asylum process to protect their lives and allow them to build a promising future in the US.

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