Former Asylum Officer Doug Stephens

Doug Stephens worked as an Asylum Officer in the San Francisco Asylum office from September 2017 until August 31, 2019. In his two years as an Asylum Officer, he conducted and adjudicated more than 350 Affirmative Asylum interviews, Credible Fear screenings, and Reasonable Fear screenings. Prior to his service in the asylum corps, Mr. Stephens was a Department of Justice (DOJ) staff attorney for the San Francisco Immigration Court from September 2015 to September 2017, and during his time he reviewed 195 cases and drafted 96 judicial decisions.

After conducting five interviews under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP or “Remain in Mexico” program), Mr. Stephens refused to conduct further interviews, believing that implementing MPP violated numerous laws and treaty obligations and posed a significant threat of harm to asylum seekers forced to remain in Mexico. After facing retaliation, he documented in writing the reasons for his concerns to his superiors in a seven-point memo and resigned in August 2019. Aware of the potential for further retaliation, Mr. Stephens sought aid from the Asylum Officers’ designated spokesperson and union president, Michael Knowles, and went to Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) to disclose his concerns that implementing MPP would violate the law and endanger migrants. His disclosures became an integral part of a report issued by Senator Merkley on November 14, 2019, “Shattered Refuge: A U.S. Senate Investigation into the Trump Administration’s Gutting of Asylum.” His disclosures have also been reported extensively in the media including in  The Washington Post, The New York Times, This American Life and The Los Angeles Times (the latter two together won the Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for their joint reporting). Additionally, Stephens submitted a statement in the record for a November 19, 2019 House Committee on Home Security’s Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation, and Operations Hearing, “Examining the Human Rights and legal Implications of DHS’ ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy.”

Mr. Stephens’s choice to speak up as an asylum officer to decry the policy’s illegality and harmful effects supported widespread awareness of the problematic policy along with more aggressive calls for its end by activists and in lengthy litigation. The Biden administration has been pressured to commit to essentially end the MPP policy. No new cases are being referred to the MPP process, yet litigation about the legality of the program continues.