'Remain in Mexico' Program Set to Resume Asylum Seeker Removals This Week: Report

The Trump administration is reinstating a program that during the first administration removed thousands of asylum seekers to Mexico while they awaited the resolution of their U.S. cases, with a new report suggesting removals could begin as early as this week.

Also known as the "Remain in Mexico" program, it was launched by the Trump administration in 2019 and terminated by former President Joe Biden in 2021. One year into his second term, President Donald Trump is bringing the program back by removing at least 400 individuals, according to two sources familiar with the plan who spoke to MS NOW News reporters Jake Taylor and Laura Barrón-López.

SCOOP: DHS plans first removals of immigrants under revived “Remain in Mexico” policy The Trump administration plans to soon remove at least 400 individuals to Mexico, including families and children, in what would be the first known restart of the controversial Remain in…

— Jake Traylor (@jake__traylor) January 25, 2026

As Taylor noted in a post on social media, the 400 individuals include families and children. They will be transported from immigration detention centers in Texas and Arizona to Mexican border cities, where they will be required to wait for their court dates, sources said.

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The 400 individuals set to be removed this week would be the first group to restart the Remain in Mexico program since 2021, after a Supreme Court ruling allowed the previous administration to revise it in 2021. As noted by the organization Human Rights Watch, the Trump administration has sent more than 71,000 asylum seekers to Mexico to await their asylum hearings since at least 2019.

The program was promoted as a way to deter what the Trump administration described as fraudulent asylum claims, but Human Rights Watch says it sent asylum seekers to Mexico, where they were exposed to rape, kidnapping, extortion, assault and psychological trauma.

The group of 400 people would further increase the number of individuals removed or deported to Mexico since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.

According to comments made by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in December, Mexico has taken in more than 152,000 people from the United States since the start of Trump's second administration, including non-Mexicans.

As noted in a 2021 Human Rights Watch investigation into vulnerable migrants and asylum seekers sent to Mexico, criminal gangs kidnap migrants of various nationalities and register them by taking photographs, reviewing identity and court documents, and logging identifying information for future reference.

Migrants interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they were afraid to report crimes and abuse to Mexican authorities and were often unable to obtain the documents needed to work, access health care, or enroll their children in school. Nearly half of asylum seekers placed under the Remain in Mexico program lost their cases after missing court dates, the investigation said.

Additionally, asylum seekers have been targets of corrupt officials. According to the organization, border enforcement agencies on both sides of the border have been implicated in a wide range of abuses linked to the program and continue to operate with near-total impunity.

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