The Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy keeps asylum seekers out of America. A new Los Angeles Times report found that only .01 percent of applicants received asylum under the new policy. [Remain in Mexico has a 0.1% asylum grant rate, by Gustavo Solis, Los Angeles Times, December 15, 2019]

The policy stipulates that asylum seekers who cross the U.S.-Mexico border must remain south of it while awaiting for their application to be processed. More than 47,000 migrants have applied under the system since it was implemented in January—only 11 migrants were granted asylum by September. Over 5,000 applicants were issued deportation notices and another 4,471 applicants were dismissed without a decision.

The .01 percent rate of acceptance is far lower than the 20 percent rate of acceptance outside of this policy.

This is a huge win for President Trump. It gives the administration the power to dissuade false asylum seekers and ensure our own facilities aren’t overwhelmed by migrant hordes. The policy is just one of the ways the administration has tried to clamp down on false asylum seekers. The administration also requires asylum seekers from south of the border to wait months in Mexico before turning themselves into Border Patrol and applying for asylum. The admin also excludes non-Mexican migrants who did not apply for asylum in their home countries from applying for asylum at the border.

Border officials are also cracking down on those asylum seekers who claim a fear-based exception to stay in America while they wait for their application to be processed. The Department of Homeland Security only granted 13 percent this fear-based exception out of more than 7,400 asylum seekers who applied for it. The rest were sent back to Mexico to wait. [Asylum-seekers sent back to nightmare in Mexico, by Jens Gould, Santa Fe New Mexican, December 16, 2019]

These rules are cutting down on migration and sending a message to Central Americans: you can’t exploit our system to get into America. We’re gonna make you wait in Mexico.