{"slug":"migrant-protection-protocols-remain-in-mexico-2019","title":"Remain in Mexico (2019): Asylum Seekers Forced to Wait in Dangerous Border Cities; Appeals Court Finds Programme Likely Unlawful","date":"2019-01-25","lastUpdated":"2026-10-04","description":"Under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), announced on 24 January 2019 and implemented by a DHS memo of 25 January, the US returned non-Mexican asylum seekers to Mexican border cities to wait for their US immigration hearings. By late June 2019 Mexico reported more than 15,000 people returned, including at least 4,780 children. Human Rights Watch documented kidnappings, sexual assault and violent attacks, found most people went to court without lawyers, and concluded that the programme violated the US obligation not to return people to danger. In February 2020 the Ninth Circuit upheld an injunction, finding the programme likely inconsistent with the immigration statute and with US non-refoulement obligations; the Supreme Court stayed that injunction in March 2020 and the programme continued.","summary":"The first Trump administration made tens of thousands of asylum seekers wait in Mexican border cities, among the most violent in the region, for US hearings they mostly faced without lawyers. HRW documented kidnappings and assaults and found the programme violated non-refoulement; a federal appeals court found it likely unlawful, but the Supreme Court let it continue.","category":"deportation-to-torture","severity":"severe","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/07/02/we-cant-help-you-here/us-returns-asylum-seekers-mexico","title":"\"We Can't Help You Here\": US Returns of Asylum Seekers to Mexico","publisher":"Human Rights Watch"},{"url":"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2019/01/24/migrant-protection-protocols","title":"Migrant Protection Protocols","publisher":"US Department of Homeland Security"},{"url":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/pdf/2020/02/28/innovation_law_lab_v._chad_wolf.pdf","title":"Innovation Law Lab v. Wolf, No. 19-15716 (9th Cir. Feb. 28, 2020)","publisher":"US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (via CourtListener)"},{"url":"https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/19a960.html","title":"Docket No. 19A960, Wolf v. Innovation Law Lab","publisher":"Supreme Court of the United States"},{"url":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/04/08/qa-us-title-42-policy-expel-migrants-border","title":"Q&A: US Title 42 Policy to Expel Migrants at the Border","publisher":"Human Rights Watch"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["Remain in Mexico","Migrant Protection Protocols","asylum","non-refoulement","Ciudad Juárez","children","kidnapping"],"relatedEntries":["remain-in-mexico-reimposition","title-42-expulsions-2020","asylum-ban-executive-order"],"timeline":[{"date":"2019-01-24","title":"DHS announces the Migrant Protection Protocols","summary":"DHS announces that certain people arriving from Mexico will be returned to Mexico to wait for the duration of their immigration proceedings, citing INA § 235(b)(2)(C) (DHS)."},{"date":"2019-01-25","title":"Implementation memo; first returns follow","summary":"Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen issues the implementation memo (DHS). The programme goes into effect on 28 January at the San Ysidro port of entry and is later expanded across the southern border (Ninth Circuit)."},{"date":"2019-06-24","title":"More than 15,000 returned","summary":"Mexico reports 15,079 people returned under MPP, including at least 4,780 children (HRW)."},{"date":"2019-07-02","title":"HRW: 'We Can't Help You Here'","summary":"Human Rights Watch documents kidnappings, assaults and lack of legal representation, and concludes MPP violates non-refoulement."},{"date":"2020-02-28","title":"Ninth Circuit: programme likely unlawful","summary":"The Ninth Circuit affirms the preliminary injunction against MPP, finding it likely inconsistent with the statute and with non-refoulement obligations (Innovation Law Lab v. Wolf)."},{"date":"2020-03-11","title":"Supreme Court stays the injunction","summary":"The Supreme Court grants the government's application and stays the injunction pending a petition for certiorari; MPP continues (docket 19A960)."}],"location":{"name":"Ciudad Juárez and other Mexican border cities","lat":31.69,"lng":-106.42},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"judicial-finding","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees","article":"Article I (incorporating Refugee Convention Article 33)","provision":"Non-refoulement: no return of a refugee to a territory where life or freedom would be threatened (US is a party)"},{"statute":"Convention against Torture","article":"Article 3","provision":"No return to a state where there is a real risk of torture (US is a party)"},{"statute":"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights","article":"Articles 7, 9 and 14","provision":"Protection from cruel treatment (including by return), liberty and security of person, and fair hearing (US is a party)"}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"More than 15,000 asylum seekers returned to Mexico by late June 2019, including at least 4,780 children and 13 pregnant women (Mexican government figures cited by HRW). HRW documented cases of kidnapping, sexual assault and violent attack among people it interviewed; it later cited one organisation's count of at least 1,544 reports of such attacks on people sent to Mexico during the Trump administration, under MPP and other policies.","perpetrators":"DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who issued the implementation memo; Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, the named defendant who defended it on appeal; US Citizenship and Immigration Services and Customs and Border Protection, which carried out returns; President Donald Trump's administration.","structuredVictims":[{"group":"Non-Mexican asylum seekers returned to Mexico to await US hearings","status":"returned by 24 June 2019 (Mexican government figure cited by HRW), including at least 4,780 children; many exposed to kidnapping and violence","count":15079}],"structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Kirstjen Nielsen","role":"DHS Secretary; issued the 25 January 2019 implementation memo","institution":"Department of Homeland Security"},{"name":"Chad Wolf","role":"Acting DHS Secretary; named defendant defending MPP on appeal","institution":"Department of Homeland Security"},{"name":"US Customs and Border Protection","role":"Carried out returns to Mexico","institution":"Department of Homeland Security"}],"keyPoints":["DHS announced MPP on 24 January 2019 under INA § 235(b)(2)(C), which lets the Secretary return certain people 'to that territory pending a [removal] proceeding' (DHS). The Ninth Circuit records that it went into effect on 28 January 2019 at the San Ysidro port of entry and was later expanded across the entire southern border.","As of 24 June 2019 Mexico reported 15,079 people returned under the programme, including at least 4,780 children with their parents and at least 13 pregnant women (HRW).","Ciudad Juárez, one of the main return points, recorded 1,247 homicides in 2018, against 23 in El Paso across the border (HRW).","HRW documented cases of harm including the sexual assault of a 20-year-old asylum seeker, a mother and her 5-year-old daughter kidnapped for ransom, and two asylum seekers kidnapped at gunpoint and beaten.","Of 54 asylum seekers HRW observed in El Paso immigration court, 50 had no lawyer. The Hope Border Institute found that although 84% of people in the programme expressed fear of persecution in Mexico in court, only 5% were subsequently exempted (HRW).","On 28 February 2020 the Ninth Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction, holding that plaintiffs were likely to succeed in showing MPP is inconsistent with 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b) and does not comply with the US's treaty-based non-refoulement obligations codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b) (Innovation Law Lab v. Wolf).","On 11 March 2020 the Supreme Court stayed the injunction pending a petition for certiorari, allowing MPP to continue (Supreme Court docket 19A960).","HRW later reported that one organisation counted at least 1,544 reports of murder, torture, rape, kidnapping and other violent attacks on asylum seekers and migrants sent to Mexico during the Trump administration. The figure covers people sent to Mexico under any policy, not only MPP."],"searchAliases":["Remain in Mexico","MPP","Migrant Protection Protocols","Innovation Law Lab"],"legalBasis":"Refugee Protocol (Refugee Convention Art. 33); Convention against Torture Art. 3; ICCPR Arts. 7, 9, 14; 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b) and § 1231(b) as interpreted by the Ninth Circuit in Innovation Law Lab v. Wolf (9th Cir. 2020)","postureNote":"A federal court of appeals found MPP likely unlawful under the immigration statute and US non-refoulement obligations at the preliminary-injunction stage; that is a judicial finding of likely illegality, not a final judgment. The Supreme Court stayed the injunction, so the programme continued. Accounts of harm come from HRW's interviews and from the organisations it cites. No international crime is shown: the returns were not shown to be part of an attack on a civilian population under Article 7.","relatedIncidents":["remain-in-mexico-reimposition","title-42-expulsions-2020","asylum-ban-executive-order"]}}