US formally ends Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ asylum policy

According to a memo, more than 11,000 migrants have been allowed to enter the US to pursue their asylum claims.

The United States has formally ended the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forced tens of thousands of Central American asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for US court cases, according to a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo (PDF) sent to agency leaders on Tuesday. The administration of President Joe Biden paused the programme, known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), shortly after he took office on January 20. Since then, more than 11,000 migrants enrolled in it have been allowed to enter the US to pursue asylum claims, a DHS official told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday. Biden has reversed many of the restrictive immigration policies of former President Donald Trump, saying Trump failed to honour US asylum laws. Republicans have criticised Biden’s actions, including ending the MPP programme, saying he encouraged an increase in migrant arrivals at the US-Mexico border in recent months.