Trump Administration Expands Remain in Mexico Program to Include Brazilians

Photo: Eric Gay/Associated Press

Brazilians seeking to cross the U.S.’s Southwest border and request asylum are being sent to wait in Mexico as their immigration cases play out, the Trump administration said Wednesday.

Brazilians join the more than 58,000 people from Central America, Venezuela, Cuba and other nations already enrolled in the controversial year-old program known as Remain in Mexico. The addition of Brazilians is particularly notable, however, because they are the first nationality included in the program who don’t primarily speak Spanish, the language of Mexico. The official language of Brazil is Portuguese.

“This law does not limit the program to any one nationality or language,” the Department of Homeland Security said while announcing the change, referring to a 1996 act by Congress that it has relied on to justify the program.

The expansion of Remain in Mexico, which is formally called the Migrant Protection Protocols, comes as the Trump administration continues to search for ways to move people more quickly through the asylum process and to deter illegal immigration.

Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said last week that two pilot programs intended to move detained asylum seekers quickly through the process would be expanded border-wide in early February.

All of these efforts by the administration to curtail asylum seekers entering the U.S. are being challenged in federal courts. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule on the legality of the Remain in Mexico program soon.

Read the rest from the WSJ HERE.

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