Share this page!

American Oversight Profile picture
Twitter logo
Jun 10 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
The Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy forced more than 71,000 asylum-seekers, including children, into dangerous migrant camps along the border.

Here’s what we uncovered about the program and how we’re still investigating. #FoiaFriday
Formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, the “Remain in Mexico” policy required asylum-seekers who arrive at the southern border to return to Mexico to wait for their claims to be processed.
Records we obtained show that the day after former President Trump issued an executive order winding down the family-separation policy, Stephen Miller emailed Chad Wolf, then DHS chief of staff, saying “return to territory.”
Stephen Miller also sent Wolf a tweet from Trump: We shouldn’t “let people come into our country based on the legal phrase they are told to say as their password.”

The records suggest Miller was focused on putting in place the “Remain in Mexico” policy.
According to documents we obtained in 2019, DHS officials had planned to ask asylum-seekers, "Do you have a fear of being returned or removed to another country?" But the Trump administration cut the question before finalizing the Migrant Protection Protocols policy.
We also obtained records that suggest White House senior adviser Stephen Miller tasked a DOJ official with providing legal justifications for Miller’s draconian immigration policy ideas, including “Remain in Mexico.”
There’s more. We obtained documents that showed an early version of the controversial policy. americanoversight.org/document/cbp-r…
In April 2021, we sued the Department of Homeland Security for records related to “Remain in Mexico.” DHS claimed it had no records of top officials’ communications about the program.
americanoversight.org/american-overs…
We’re fighting to obtain public records that include legal analyses, reports, briefing documents, and communications from DHS leaders related to the policy. We also FOIA’d emails between top DHS officials and representatives from anti-immigration groups.americanoversight.org/investigation/…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with American Oversight

American Oversight Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @weareoversight

American Oversight Profile picture
Jun 10
BREAKING: In our lawsuit this morning, a Wisconsin judge ruled that the Wisconsin Assembly’s Office of Special Counsel, headed by Michael Gableman, is in contempt of court regarding the failure to release public records in violation of a court order.
Our statement, following today's ruling that the Wisconsin Office of Special Counsel is in contempt of court.
Today’s ruling came during a hearing scheduled as part of our ongoing open records lawsuit against OSC seeking the release of records related to the Wisconsin Assembly’s partisan investigation of the 2020 presidential election.
Read 9 tweets
American Oversight Profile picture
Jun 10
Watching the Jan. 6 hearing? Follow along with our minute-by-minute timeline of the attack and response, drawn from internal federal records we obtained from multiple agencies. americanoversight.org/timeline-jan6
The timeline includes dozens of calls made by top DOJ officials, including acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, throughout the day on Jan. 6 as the attack unfolded. americanoversight.org/timeline-jan6
Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen's handwritten call log for Jan. 6 shows multiple calls with Vice President Pence and congressional leaders from both parties.

It shows none with Donald Trump.

americanoversight.org/timeline-jan6
Read 4 tweets
American Oversight Profile picture
Jun 9
NEW: We obtained draft legislation from Florida Gov. Ron DenSantis’ office that shows his wide-ranging plans to increase his authority, make it more difficult to obtain public records, and make it harder to amend the state’s constitution.
jasongarcia.substack.com/p/the-desantis…
One of the draft bills we obtained would have reorganized Florida’s executive branch to give the governor more power to bypass the state’s independently elected cabinet, including the state attorney general.
americanoversight.org/document/flori…
DeSantis’ office also drafted legislation that would have made it more difficult to pull public records out of his administration, according to the records we uncovered.
Read 6 tweets
American Oversight Profile picture
Jun 9
Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller’s fingerprints were on some of the Trump administration’s harshest immigration restrictions. We’ve uncovered records that show his contacts with extremist groups and influence on anti-immigrant policies.
americanoversight.org/investigation/…
Miller and his administration allies were frequently in contact with members of anti-immigrant extremist groups, discussing efforts to punish sanctuary cities or to promote false narratives about immigrants as criminals.
americanoversight.org/how-members-of…
We also uncovered records regarding Miller’s involvement in the development and execution of family separation, the Muslim travel ban, and other immigration policies.
americanoversight.org/new-documents-…
Read 6 tweets
American Oversight Profile picture
Jun 9
NEW: Last Nov., Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed cutting the gas tax for roughly six months.

Records we obtained show that nine days later, an aide drafted legislation to delay and limit the tax break to Oct. 2022. The bill passed in March.
tampabay.com/news/florida-p…
Stephanie Kopelousos, DeSantis’ director of legislative affairs, drafted legislation to make the gas tax cut only for October 2022, the month before voters will decide whether or not to reelect DeSantis.
“Can you please put this in bill drafting?” she wrote in an email on Dec. 1 to an aide to state Sen. Aaron Bean, the vice-chairperson of the Senate’s Appropriations Committee. We obtained this email through a public records request.
documentcloud.org/documents/2205…
Read 6 tweets
American Oversight Profile picture
Jun 9
New: We’ve obtained more than a dozen sets of records from the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol — including handwritten notes, call logs, and emails — and we’ve compiled them alongside public reporting in a comprehensive timeline of the government response. americanoversight.org/timeline-jan6
The timeline includes handwritten call logs of acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen; eight pages of handwritten, minute-by-minute notes from the National Guard; and heavily redacted Secret Service emails documenting the movements of Vice President Mike Pence, and more.
Even before the rioters left the building, there were already conflicting reports about the sequence of events, which government officials knew what, when they knew it, and what actions they took.
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(