SPLC Statement on the ‘Remain in Mexico’ Plan In Effect Today

The Southern Poverty Law Center has been challenging Trump's asylum policies in the courts, including getting a federal judge to temporarily block the policy of denying asylum to migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry (EAST BAY) and challenging the administration’s ‘turnback’ policy (AL OTRO LADO).
 
 The following statement is from Mary Bauer, Deputy Legal Director for the Southern Poverty Law Center:
 
"The Trump administration’s war on asylum-seekers continues. There is no doubt that, unless blocked, this policy will lead to even more chaos and further erode our nation’s core values.
 
Like so many of the other policies implemented by this administration, this willfully ignores the reality that current flows of migrants are due to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Central America. Desperate migrant families have arrived seeking refuge from the perils of their Central American homelands and have been trapped at the border in grave danger as a result of the Administration’s illegal policies.
 
But today’s announcement ignores the reality that the Trump administration has a longstanding policy and practice of denying asylum seekers access to the asylum process—using threats, intimidation, coercion, verbal abuse, physical force and physically obstructing access to the POE building in San Diego. 
 
To knowingly and willingly deny due process to countless asylum-seekers who have fled extreme violence or other persecution by their governments or private actors that the government is unable or unwilling to control, is unconscionable. It cannot and should not stand."