This briefing presents Amnesty International’s findings and observations from a week-long research trip to Tijuana, Mexico, in February 2025, whose purpose was to document the human rights impacts of changes to US migration and asylum policies since President Trump took office on January 20, 2025.
This briefing focuses on the end of applying for asylum at the US-Mexico border and the situation of asylum seekers in Mexico.
This briefing does not provide detailed information about mass immigration arrests and detentions in the United States, nor an analysis of the discriminatory impacts of these measures. The cumulative effects and harms of the Trump administration’s punitive and discriminatory immigration and asylum measures are the subject of Amnesty International’s ongoing monitoring and analysis of the situation in the United States.
During the trip to Tijuana, Amnesty International interviewed people seeking safety, met with legal, humanitarian and social service providers, local and international organizations, and visited shelters and spaces where migrants and asylum seekers are staying.
Amnesty International has observed the devasting and immediate impacts of the Trump administration’s migration and asylum policies at the US-Mexico border. These policies violate international human rights and refugee law. Moreover, taken together, Amnesty International is concerned that these policies and the rhetoric and arguments used to justify them and garner support for them, are rooted in white supremacy and perpetuate false narratives about people seeking safety and migrants.
Amnesty International calls on both the United States and Mexico to guarantee the rights of individuals to seek asylum.
Read “Lives in Limbo: Devastating Impacts of Trump’s Migration and Asylum Policies.”
Read in Spanish: “Vidas En El Limbo: Las Devastadoras Consecuencias De Las Políticas De Trump Sobre Migración Y Asilo.”