It's working. Tens of thousands to abandon asylum

The Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy has done exactly what officials had hoped — convince illegal immigrants with bogus asylum claims to give up and return home, officials said this week, declaring the controversial policy a success.

Of the 55,000 migrants who were subject to the Migrant Protection Protocols, as the program is officially known, a “small subset” have won their cases and been readmitted to the U.S. to proceed with asylum claims.

Another 20,000 are still waiting in northern Mexico, Homeland Security officials believe. But that leaves tens of thousands who are believed to have given up their claims.

Just as important are the would-be migrants that have not made the trip in the first place, Homeland Security said, cutting the number of illegal immigrant families nabbed at the U.S.-Mexico border by 80% from its record high in May.

The program is also more fair to the migrants, Homeland Security argues, since they can get a final hearing and learn their fate within a few months, rather than the years-long backlog for those stuck in the U.S. immigration courts.

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