In more immigration news, the Biden administration on Monday restarted the contested, Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program. Since its implementation in 2019, the policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases were resolved in U.S. courts.

Earlier this year, a federal judge ordered the Biden administration to revive the program. But immigrant justice advocates are denouncing Biden’s government for choosing to expand those who are eligible to include asylum seekers from the entire Western Hemisphere, which includes Haitians. The group Human Rights First has tracked over 1,500 reports of murder, torture, rape and other attacks against asylum seekers forced to remain in Mexico. This is an asylum seeker from Honduras, who has been stuck in an encampment in the Mexican border city of Reynosa. 

Eidi Reyes: “I have been here for four months in the Plaza de las Americas, where the migrant camp is located. All we ask for is help. We want to leave, and we have suffered a lot. There are many sick children. We are in danger. We are afraid because we feel unsafe here.”