FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, December 2, 2021
Press Contact: Jessica Ortiz, [email protected]
“Biden must stop fueling cruel and heartless cycles of displacement and immediately end MPP”
San Antonio, TX – In response to the Biden administration’s forthcoming reinstatement of the ‘Migrant Protection Protocols’, also known as the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, RAICES released the following statement from Tami Goodlette, Director of Litigation condemning the decision.
“The Biden administration must understand that there is no way to reinstate the so-called ‘Migrant Protection Protocols’ in a moral or humane way,” said Tami Goodlette, Director of Litigation at the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES). “The policy is fundamentally unjust and is being used as an illegal deterrent to turn the border – a place where people can legally seek asylum – into a site rampant for human rights crises and abuses.
“Instead of keeping its promise to provide a border where migrants can seek asylum as permitted under U.S. and international law, the Biden Administration is choosing to carry out inhumane and xenophobic policies from the Trump era that will continue putting families and children into danger. President Biden has had countless opportunities to do more to protect the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees, such as submitting a rescission memo to exert influence, but he has refused to listen to immigrant rights advocates and has chosen to do nothing.
“The Biden administration is not only planning to reinstate MPP, but also simultaneously engage in a systematic targeting of Black migrants that will create repeated cycles of trauma and displacement. MPP was implemented during an influx of Haitian and Black migrants coming to the U.S. border, who were then subject to additional abuse, racism, and displacement in an unknown country.
“Instead of providing care and safety for migrants, the U.S. is actively choosing to create an environment of rampant danger and abuse where vulnerable people are at an increased risk of violence and exploitation. It’s poignant and telling that the U.S. has issued travel warnings and restrictions for the same cities where they are dumping migrants under MPP. As a result, asylum seekers are forced to live in unhygienic camps in unfamiliar cities, and are targeted by organized crime with no protection from rampant violence.
“These cycles of suffering have been going on far too long. President Biden must stop fueling cruel and heartless cycles of displacement and immediately end MPP.”
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The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees. Learn more at raicestexas.org.
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