Donald Trump wasted no time in ordering a dramatic reversal of his predecessor’s immigration policy. He immediately reintroduced the controversial ‘Quédate en México’ policy. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded by repeating her country’s commitment to ‘humanitarian principles’.
Translated for LAB by Mike Gatehouse
Only minutes after Donald Trump became president of the United States for a second time, the US Office of Customs and Frontier Protection announced that it was suspending the application of the directive known as US Customs and Border Protection CBP1, a key tool in the migration policy of Joe Biden which allowed the legal admission to the USA of around a million people between January 2023 and December 2024.
Thus at a stroke thousands of people, most of whom come from Central and South America, have become marooned in Mexico. Some are living in temporary camps in Chiapas and Oaxaca, states in the south of Mexico, or in the cities along the northern border. Thousands of others are still in transit within Mexico, heading northwards.
Amongst the first actions taken by President Trump as he began his second term of office, was his announcement of the deportation of thousands of people whom he calls ‘criminals’. At the same time he declared a state of national emergency along the southern frontier of the United States, ordered the deployment of troops along the border with Mexico and, amongst other things, announced the revival of the Quédate en México (‘Stay in Mexico’) policy he himself brought in during his first administration (2017 – 2021).
In December 2018 the Trump administration had announced the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP 1.0), commonly known as Quédate en México – ‘Stay in Mexico’. Through this programme, which came into effect in 2019, migrants who arrived at the southern frontier of the United States and sought asylum either at border crossings or within US territory, were summoned to appear before an immigration tribunal, but were specifically required to return to Mexico first, and wait there for their hearing.
Official data suggests that in December 2020, out of 40,000 applications processed via the ‘Stay in Mexico’ process, only 521 were granted asylum. When he became president, Joe Biden suspended this Policy, but Trump, on returning to the presidency, announced its immediate revival.
NGOs have stated their concerns and their rejection of the Quédate en México policy. They stress that it denies due process to the migrants, exposes asylum seekers to violations of their human rights and puts them at risk in the climate of violence which afflicts insecure areas along the frontier.
During her press conference on Tuesday 21 January, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum made clear that Quédate en México is a migration policy of the US government. Mexico, she pointed out, has its own migration policies and is a country proud of acting according to humanitarian principles. In line with Mexican foreign Policy, she continued, Mexico will seeks to repatriate foreign citizens to their countries of origin.