Civil Society Organizations Call on the Mexican Government to Reject Any Reinstatement of MPP

To: President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador

Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard Causabon

Secretary of the Interior, Olga Sanchez Cordero

CC: Alejandro Encinas, Undersecretary on Human Rights, Migration, and Population, Secretariat of the Interior

Francisco Garduño Yáñez, Commissioner, National Institute of Migration

Roberto Velasco, Undersecretary for North America, Secretary of Foreign Affairs

Andrés Ramirez Silva, Director of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance

Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, Ambassador to the United States

August 24, 2021

Dear President López Obrador, Secretary Ebrard, and Secretary Sanchez:

We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to call on Mexico to reject the reinstatement of former President Trump’s inhumane Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as Remain in Mexico. For two years, this policy erected insurmountable due process barriers and inflicted extreme harm on the more than 72,000 individuals seeking protection who were returned to Mexico to await their U.S. immigration hearings.

Currently, the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing a request to stay a lower court’s order requiring the Biden administration to immediately reinstate MPP, a move that would depend on Mexico’s cooperation. The Court of Appeals, in denying a previous request to stay the lower court’s order, indicated that the U.S. government would still be in compliance if its good-faith efforts to re-implement the policy were blocked by Mexico. Additionally, the Biden administration said that Mexico’s support was essential to operationalize MPP, and it would be impossible to unilaterally reinstate this policy without Mexico’s active collaboration.

As a sovereign nation, Mexico has the right to reject the reinstatement of MPP or any future iteration of this policy that aims to externalize the U.S. border into Mexican territory. It is impossible to re-implement MPP in a way that upholds human rights and due process, and Mexico has the responsibility to block this detrimental policy.

The legality of MPP and the human rights violations of individuals returned to Mexico through Remain in Mexico are still being assessed by Mexican institutions. Mexico’s Supreme Court is currently reviewing a case about Mexico’s participation in MPP and a federal criminal complaint related to the thousands of kidnappings and several other complaints before the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) remain pending. Since Mexico accepted the implementation of MPP on December 20, 2018, many of our organizations have written urging your government to halt its complicity in this harmful policy.

A return to such an inhumane policy would exacerbate the dangerous conditions and insecurity for those seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. Individuals subjected to MPP were forced to wait for up to fifteen months in overcrowded shelters and improvised, squalid migrant encampments. Civil society organizations documented thousands of kidnappings, rapes, assaults, and other crimes against those returned to Mexican border cities under MPP.

Since January 2021, the Biden administration has taken crucial steps to redress MPP’s harms by suspending new enrollments and officially terminating the policy. We commend Mexico’s cooperation with the U.S. and international organizations in the MPP wind down which has already permitted more than 13,000 individuals subjected to MPP to continue their asylum cases in the U.S. We urge Mexico to continue its cooperation on the MPP wind down process and to reaffirm its commitment to the protection of people who wish to present claims in Mexico or the United States. We also encourage bilateral discussions to prioritize measures that will strengthen the Mexican asylum system and U.S. asylum processing at ports of entry, increase protection options, and end policies that impede access to asylum in the United States.

We are grateful for your time and consideration.

 

Sincerely,

Al Otro Lado TJ AC

Alianza Américas

Alianza Humanitaria Chaparral — American Friends Service Committee LAC, APALA SD, Border Angels, Borderline Crisis Center, Psicólogos Sin Fronteras, Unified U.S. Deported Veterans

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) – Oficina Regional de América Latina y El Caribe

Amnistía Internacional/Amnesty International

Apoyo a Migrantes Venezolanos

Asistencia Legal por los Derechos Humanos A.C. (ASILEGAL)

Asylum Access México (AAMX) A.C.

Border Angels

Border Line Crisis Center, A. C.

Border Organizing Project

Casa de Acogida Formación y Empoderamiento de la Mujer Migrante y Refugiada (CAFEMIN)

CARECEN

Casa del Caminante Samuel Ruiz García

Casa del Migrante en Tijuana, A.C.

Casa del Migrante Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

Casa Monarca. Ayuda humanitaria al migrante, A.B.P.

Center for Civic Policy

Center for Gender & Refugee Studies

Centro 32 FBTMX

Centro de Atención a la Familia Migrante Indígena AC

Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional (CEJIL)

Clínica Jurídica para Refugiados “Alaíde Foppa”

Coalición Pro Defensa del Migrante, A.C.

Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos (CMDPDH)

Comunidad Maya Pixan Ixim

Cuerpo Académico Procesos Transnacionales y Migración BUAP-CA-230

Dignidad y Justicia en el Camino A.C “FM4 Paso Libre”

Dimensión Episcopal de Pastoral de la Movilidad Humana

Espacio Migrante A.C.

Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project

Fundación Izote

Fundación para la Justicia y el Estado Democrático de Derecho

Fundación Regalando Amor

Geopaz. Instituto de Geografía para la paz AC (IGP)/Institute of Geography for Peace

Global Exchange

Grupo de Trabajo Sobre Política Migratoria-GTPM: Aldeas Infantiles SOS México, I.A.P.; Alianza Américas; American Friends Services Committee; Asylum Access México (AAMX) A.C.; Casa del Migrante Saltillo (Frontera con Justicia A.C.); Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Matías de Córdova, A.C.; Coalición Pro Defensa del Migrante de Baja California; Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos; Fundación Appleseed México, A.C.; DHIA. Derechos Humanos Integrales en Acción, A.C.; FUNDAR Centro de Análisis e Investigación, A.C.; IMUMI Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración; Iniciativa Ciudadana para la Promoción de la Cultura del Diálogo, A.C.; INSYDE Instituto para la Seguridad y la Democracia; M3 Movimiento Migrante Mesoamericano; REDIM Red por los Derechos de la Infancia en México; Save The Children México, Sin Fronteras, IAP; Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes México; Servicio Jesuita a Refugiados; SMR Scalabrinianas: Misión para Migrantes y Refugiados; Leticia Calderón, Analista en temas migratorios; Brenda Valdés; Elba Coria; Manuel Ángel Castillo, Investigador; IDC International Detention Coalition (Observadoras). Claudia Martínez Medrano, Jocelín Mariscal Agreda y Melissa A. Vértiz Hernández, Secretaría Técnica.

Human Rights First

IMALAB Social

Iniciativa Ciudadana para la Promoción de la Cultura del Diálogo, A. C.

Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración, AC (IMUMI)

Instituto para la Seguridad y la Democracia, A.C.

Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice of Western MA

Las Vanders

Latin America Working Group (LAWG)

National Immigration Law Center

National Partnership for New Americans

NuestraREdMx

Oasis Providencial AC – Albergue Decanal Guadalupano

Organización México Americana para el Desarrollo, A.C.

Oxfam México

Programa de Asuntos Migratorios Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México

Programa de las Américas

Pueblo Sin Fronteras

Quixote Center

Red de Documentación de las Organizaciones Defensoras de Migrantes (REDODEM)

Red Jesuita con Migrantes de Guatemala

Red Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos “Todos los Derechos para Todas y Todos” (Red TDT)

Refugees International

San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium

Scalabrinianas Misión con Migrantes y Refugiados

Seminario Universitario de Estudios sobre Desplazamiento Interno, Migración, Exilio y Repatriación (SUDIMER-UNAM)

Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes México

Servicio Jesuita a Refugiados – México

Sin Fronteras IAP

Sisters of Mercy of the Americas – Justice Team

Unified U.S. Deported Veterans Resource Center

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas México

Ustedes Somos Nosotrxs

Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)

Witness at the Border

Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC)