The Trump administration announced on Wednesday it will require Brazilian asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for the duration of their U.S. immigration proceedings, subjecting the first non-Spanish speaking population to the controversial “Remain in Mexico” policy.
The move to send Portuguese-speaking migrants to Mexico represents the latest expansion of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program, a policy being challenged in court that has drawn scathing criticism from advocates but which the Trump administration credits for a sharp drop in apprehensions of migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in the past seven months. Up until now, the U.S. had generally not subjected Brazilians and asylum-seekers from other non-Spanish speaking countries to the MPP program.
