The first few weeks of President Trump’s second term in office have instilled a heightened level of fear, as longtime neighbors, residents, and tightly knit communities have encountered increased federal immigration enforcement. Nevertheless, many communities continue to show up for one another in big ways and small to defend their neighbors, their loved ones, and their homes. |
As we near the one-month mark of the new Trump administration, it is clear that the president’s thinly veiled threats of imposing mass deportation on “criminal immigrants” are in fact a promise to target all immigrants—and sometimes even U.S. citizens. |
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) commonly transfers people in detention from one facility to another in a different geographic area. These transfers often remove people from loved ones and support systems and can disrupt individuals’ removal proceedings by taking them to places where access to legal representation is virtually impossible. ICE regularly moves people multiple times before their eventual release.
In 2012, ICE published a policy that consolidated guidance on transfers. The policy sought to establish protocols for making transfer decisions, systematize supervisory review of the determinations, and establish obligations for data keeping to ensure compliance. However, ICE has not published any updates to this policy in more than 13 years. To get more information about this issue, the American Immigration Council teamed up with the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network to pursue more information about ICE detention transfers.
Read more: FOIA Seeking Information about Detrimental Transfers of People in ICE Custody
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In December 2018, the Trump administration announced the creation of a new program called the “Migrant Protection Protocols”—often referred to as the “Remain in Mexico” program. The program, which was used to send approximately 68,000 migrants back to Mexico, suffered from widespread problems, including reports of severe human rights violations; high costs; an increase in repeat border crossings; and serious logistical problems. The Biden administration went on to suspend and then terminate MPP.
After President Trump took office again in January, the Department of Homeland Security announced that MPP would once again be put into effect. The administration has yet to announce further details of the reinstated program.
This recently updated fact sheet from the American Immigration Council discusses how MPP was put into effect under Trump during his first term, providing a window into how it may be utilized in the future.
Read more: The “Migrant Protection Protocols:” An Explanation of the Remain in Mexico Program |
