12/7/21

By Josh Rubin

What are we to make of the reinstatement and huge expansion of the Remain in Mexico policy? The current administration has gone from the suspension to the abolition to the revival of a policy that formally establishes a bilateral agreement to turn Mexico into a prison camp for asylum seekers, now to include anyone from this hemisphere, including people from new countries in the list of those who can serve their time while waiting for a court date in some of the most dangerous places in the world.

As ICE Air flights continue their policy of expulsion under an invocation of Title 42 of the health code, even as the borders reopen to tourists and business, making a mockery of its rationale, the administration decided to to shock us with its callousness by allowing a court order to restore a policy that it has itself called cruel and unworkable. Can we add, deadly? Can we also add that Remain in Mexico is also illegal under international agreements, violating the principle of nonrefoulement, which says that we are prohibited from sending those fleeing danger back into danger?

We harbored secret hopes that the new memo they wrote to justify the elimination of Remain in Mexico meant that when the court order was followed and the policy restored, that there would be a quick next move to abolish the practice. Those hopes are eroded, though, by this tremendous expansion to cover so many more people. And by the continuation, month after month of the Title 42 expulsions.

And here we are, the displacement crisis upon us, still refusing to abandon the xenophobia and greed that condemns the human race, instead hardening the borders against empathy. On both sides of the border.