President Donald Trump begins process for reinstating Remain in Mexico program

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reinstate the  Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the Remain in Mexico program. 

"As soon as practicable, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General, shall take all appropriate action to resume the Migrant Protection Protocols in all sectors along the southern border of the United States," the Jan. 20 executive order said. 

The program, launched in January 2019 via a Department of Homeland Security memo, sent certain migrants seeking asylum to Mexico to await their U.S. immigration court proceedings. 

Former President Joe Biden terminated the program in early 2021; it reinstated the program briefly because of a lawsuit from Missouri and Texas, but the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 allowed Biden to end the program.

Trump's executive order also called for ending humanitarian parole programs established under Biden's administration that allowed people from certain countries to legally live and work in the U.S. temporarily. The order also ended the CBP One phone application, which allowed asylum seekers to schedule appointments at official ports of entry.

Trump's order could begin diplomatic negotiations with Mexico, but it does not immediately restart the program. To apply the program, the U.S. needs Mexico's consent, immigration experts have said.

Mexico's foreign affairs minister, Juan Ramón de la Fuente, said in a Jan. 20 press conference that Mexico disagreed with the policy's reinstatement.

Remain in Mexico "is a complicated program requiring daily coordination with Mexican immigration officials as migrants are returned to Mexico multiple times over the course of the program after court hearings," Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, an immigration-rights advocacy group, wrote Jan. 20 on X.

Trump ordered reinstating the Remain in Mexico program. It may take some time to get up and running. We rate the pledge's status In the Works.