A group of senators are demanding acting Department of Homeland Security Sec. Chad Wolf publicly release an internal report finding that U.S. border officials demanded asylum officers block entry to vulnerable families as part of the inhumane and illegal Remain in Mexico policy.
BuzzFeed News last week revealed some contents of the report—created by Homeland Security officials under the watch of former acting Sec. Kevin McAleenan—but it has otherwise not been made public, nor does it appear that improvements recommended in it been made. In their letter to Wolf, Senators Kamala Harris, Jeff Merkley, Chuck Schumer, and Elizabeth Warren demanded he publicly reveal “the flaws and dangerous consequences of the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP), also known as the ‘Remain in Mexico’ program.”
“MPP has transformed the asylum process at our southern border since it was implemented just 11 months ago,” they write in the letter to Wolf. “Releasing this report will help Congress and the American public better understand how this relatively new program has changed procedures and logistics for asylum seekers attempting to navigate the immigration court system.”
Transforming the asylum process is right, and it’s been transformation for the worse. Over 50,000 people have now been kicked out of the U.S. to wait out their court dates in Mexico, with no guarantee they’ll be able to come back to the U.S. for their hearing because they’ve been stranded, have gotten sick, or have been kidnapped. McAleenan himself had falsely claimed Remain in Mexico has “successfully provided protections” to families, but that would now be debunked by his own report.
The information that BuzzFeed has could presumably be turned over to the group of senators, but the administration also shouldn’t be able to sit on a taxpayer-funded investigation that has apparently found serious flaws in a program it calls successful but in reality has stomped on our asylum system and left thousands of people vulnerable. And though the report does apparently contain recommendations from Homeland Security officials on how to improve the program, there’s truly only one recommendation to make when it comes to Remain in Mexico: it must end.