DHS Terminates the Migrant Protection Protocols Program
Background
On January 20, 2021, then-Acting Secretary David Pekoske issued a memorandum suspending new enrollments in MPP, effective the following day.2 On February 2, 2021 , President Biden issued Executive Order 14010, 86 Fed. Reg. 8267, Creating a Comprehensive Regional Framework To Address the Causes of Migration, To Manage Migration Throughout North and Central America, and To Provide Safe and Orderly Processing of Asylum Seekers at the United States Border. In this Executive Order, President Biden directed me, in coordination with the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to "promptly consider a phased strategy for the safe and orderly entry into the United States, consistent with public health and safety and capacity constraints, of those individuals who have been subjected to MPP for further processing of their asylum claims,” and “to promptly review and determine whether to terminate or modify the program known as the Migrant Protection Protocols.”3
On February 11, the Department announced that it would begin the first phase of a program to restore safe and orderly processing at the Southwest Border of certain individuals enrolled in MPP whose immigration proceedings remained pending before the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).4 According to Department of State data, between February 19 and May 25, 2021, through this program’s first phase approximately 11,200 individuals were processed into the United States. The Department is continuing to work with interagency partners to carry out this phased effort and to consider expansion to additional populations enrolled in MPP.
Having now completed the further review undertaken pursuant to Executive Order 14010 to determine whether to terminate or modify MPP, and for the reasons outlined below, I am by this memorandum terminating the MPP program. I direct DHS personnel to take all appropriate actions to terminate MPP, including taking all steps necessary to rescind implementing guidance and other directives or policy guidance issued to implement the program.