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Since the Donald Trump administration implemented about a year ago its new Migration Protection Protocols immigration policy, more than 55,000 asylum-seeking migrants from Central America have been sent back to Mexico to remain there until they can get a court date in the United States.
And hundreds more are being shipped to wait in a so-called “safe third country” as the Department of Homeland Security in November expanded the MPP program, also called “Remain in Mexico,” to include Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
While the administration is touting Remain in Mexico as an early success, critics say otherwise.
They contend that asylum-seekers face safety issues and lack access to legal counsel while waiting in dangerous towns in these countries. And they say very few will ever receive asylum, pointing to data from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse that show that out of the tens of thousands of migrants who have arrived at the southern border in recent months, just 117 have been granted protection by a judge.
These issues and others facing lawyers working on the southern boarder will be discussed during a program titled “To the Border and Back Again” on Friday, Feb. 14 from 3:30-5 p.m. CT at the Omni Austin Hotel Downtown during the ABA Midyear Meeting in Austin, Texas. The program is sponsored by the ABA Criminal Justice Section and the Center for Public Interest Law.
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