January 29, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 19 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Page H645]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
             IT IS TIME TO END MIGRANT PROTECTION PROTOCOLS

  (Ms. ESCOBAR asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. ESCOBAR. Mr. Speaker, today marks the 1-year anniversary of the 
implementation of the abhorrent Migrant Protection Protocol program, or 
MPP, which forces vulnerable asylum seekers to remain in Mexico for 
their U.S. court dates.
  MPP is currently implemented at seven ports of entry along the U.S.-
Mexico border, including in my community, El Paso, Texas, where over 
18,000 asylum seekers have been made to wait in Ciudad Juarez, 
Chihuahua.
  During my time in Congress, I have brought a number of my colleagues 
to the border to see our Nation's immigration challenges firsthand. A 
number of them joined me last July, when we crossed the border to visit 
with some of the families impacted by the program. We heard about their 
journey to the U.S., the dangers they face if they return home, and 
what it takes to survive day-to-day in Mexico, a country that is not 
their own. We heard that obtaining legal counsel is nearly impossible, 
hindering due process.
  This administration is making it as hard as possible for these 
families to obtain asylum in an effort to deter them from coming to the 
U.S. in the first place, because cruelty is the point.
  I urge my colleagues to cosponsor H.R. 2662, the Asylum Seeker 
Protection Act, to defund this unlawful, abhorrent program.

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