IJs Allow Asylum-Seekers to Remain in USA

URIEL J. GARCÍA, Texas Tribune, AUG. 26, 2022

"Willian woke up before dawn on a recent Tuesday, packed his legal documents into a blue folder and got in a van with other migrants to one of the international bridges that connect El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. At the port of entry, the 46-year-old asylum-seeker from Ecuador was disenrolled from the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP. The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled the Biden administration had the right to formally end the Trump-era policy. The program, also known as “remain in Mexico,” forced thousands of asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico as their cases made their way through U.S. courts. Immigration officials transported Willian and at least eight other migrants to El Paso’s immigration court, where judges gave them all permission to stay in the U.S. They can continue their asylum cases in courts closest to wherever they settle."

Willian, a 46-year-old asylum-seeker from Ecuador, waits for a ride outside the Annunciation House after leaving immigration court in El Paso on Tuesday. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune