Less than 1 percent of immigrants seeking asylum under President Donald Trump’s controversial Migrant Protection Protocols policy are granted refuge, the San Diego Union Tribune reports.
According to the newspaper, the strategy to halt immigration, more popularly known as Remain in Mexico, has made it close to impossible for people to receive asylum.
As of September, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University counts that more than 47,000 people have been in the program. Less than 10,000 people have actually completed their cases. Of them, 5,085 were denied and 4,471 were dismissed, either because a decision wasn’t made or because the asylum seeker ended their case. Only 11 cases have resulted in asylum.
With a 0.1 percent grant rate, Remain in Mexico has drastically lowered the chance of asylum for immigrants seeking a safe haven in the U.S. For instance, the Executive Office for Immigration Review notes that outside of the policy, about 20 percent of asylum seekers have their cases approved.
Through Remain in Mexico, implemented on January 25, 2019, asylum seekers who arrive at U.S. ports of entry on the southern border are required to wait for their cases to be heard in Mexico.
The policy has been criticized by immigrant rights’ groups that say it places people — many of whom escaping violence — in further danger.
Last week, a Salvadoran husband and father of two was brutally murdered while awaiting his asylum case in Tijuana under the Remain in Mexico policy.
“I won’t get my husband back,” his widow said. “We had so many plans for our children and everything was ruined because they don’t believe us.”