Title: Immigration 101: What is ‘Remain in Mexico’, or the Migration Protection Protocols (MPP)? | America's Voice
Headings: Immigration 101: What is ‘Remain in Mexico’, or the Migration Protection Protocols (MPP)?
Immigration 101: What is ‘Remain in Mexico’, or the Migration Protection Protocols (MPP)?
Originally published November 15, 2019
What is MPP and Who is Affected?
Trump Administration’s Push for the Policy
Tent Courts and a Sham Asylum Process
Dangerous and Deplorable Conditions Faced by Asylum Seekers
Children Caught in MPP
Read more about ‘Remain in Mexico’
Learn more about the Trump Administration’s immigration changes

Content: And migrants are not typically presented with a single court date; rather, they are asked to appear multiple times, are sent back to Mexico after each time, and months pass between court dates. The asylum seekers are being forced to wait in dangerous parts of Mexico, where cartels have a strong hold on the area. For example, the U.S. is sending migrants to Matamaros, where the State Department’s Overseas Security Advisory Council warns Americans not to travel because “violent crime, such as murder, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, extortion, and sexual assault, is common.” They are also sending asylum seekers to Nuevo Laredo, where the U.S. government warns that “homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery, is widespread” and forbids government employees to “travel between cities after dark”. Being forced to stay in these conditions leaves many asylum seekers vulnerable to gangs, rape, kidnapping, and violent assault — the same dangerous scenarios they fled in the first place. Vulnerable populations, like LGBTQ migrants, disabled people, pregnant women, are supposed to be excluded from the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy. However, individual cases have been left up to the discretion of agents, and the result has meant that vulnerable populations are also caught in the program. Rochelle Garza, an attorney with the ACLU, has identified at least 18 pregnant women who have been subject to MPP. Michael Knowles, a union representative for some 600 asylum officers said, “we have reason to believe that CBP’s reasons for doing that is they don’t want the individual to give birth to a child on American soil, because that would then create a new American citizen.