CMPI Condemns Supreme Court Decision that Will Put Thousands of Indigenous People in Grave Danger

Omaha, NE - Today, Comunidad Maya Pixan Ixim (CMPI), an organization founded and led by Maya and Indigenous people based in Omaha, NE and Maya Territories in Guatemala, condemns the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Migrant Protection Protocols. Though the Biden Administration had ended the much-hated policy, the court’s decision will force its reinstatement while it is challenged in lower courts.

“The Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as the “Remain in Mexico” program, was always illegal and born from racism and colonial interests. We are disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision to force the Biden Administration to reinstate it. This ruling puts thousands of asylum seekers, many of whom are Indigenous, in grave danger. We call on the U.S. to end the cruel and inhumane MPP that traps Indigenous people at the Mexican border where we are the most vulnerable to violence by organized crime and Mexican police. We also call on the US to stop creating the situations that displace us from our ancestral lands and force us to flee in the first place.” said Carolina Martin Ramos, Co-Executive Director of CMPI.
Since its founding in 2007, CMPI has worked for the sovereignty and well-being of Maya people in Omaha, NE. In 2013, it began its Maya human rights program with the goal of protecting the rights of Maya people in the US and in Maya territories currently occupied by the state of Guatemala. CMPI staff and volunteers provide legal representation and advocate for policies that recognize Maya and other Indigenous Peoples’ inalienable rights and rights under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“We as Indigenous People are forced to flee our ancestral homelands and seek asylum because occupying settler colonial states including the U.S. protect the transnational extractive industries and other business interests that criminalize, torture, and kill our people when we assert our inherent rights and rights under international human rights law. Instead of the illegal and immoral MPP, we demand protocols that support our right to stay home in our ancestral lands where we have lived since time immemorial.” said Luis Marcos, Co-Executive Director of CMPI and Spiritual and Political Authority with the Q’anjob’al Maya Government.