Addressing the Cruelty of the “Remain in Mexico” Program

Since the rollout of the “Remain in Mexico” program in south Texas in the summer of 2019, the clinic has engaged in efforts to address the extreme harms suffered by asylum seekers trapped in northern Mexico during their U.S. Immigration Court proceedings as a result of this new policy. In the fall of 2019, student attorneys in the clinic traveled to Laredo and Brownsville several times to document the danger faced by asylum seekers in Mexico and the egregious violations of due process taking place in asylum hearings held by video in temporary tent courts right at the border.  The student attorneys spoke with a number of affected individuals and families who had suffered severe violence as a result of the U.S. government’s decision to force them back into Mexico to await U.S. hearings that would span many months.

The students then worked with more than 200 scholars and academics to ask Congress to intervene to end the “Remain in Mexico” policy.

In January 2020, along with the University of Pennsylvania School of Law Transnational Legal Clinic, the clinic filed a request for a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the “Remain in Mexico” program.  The two clinics also filed requests for precautionary measures against both Mexico and the United States before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.  These requests ask the Inter-American Commission to recommend termination of the program.

Category: Cases and Projects
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