Mullin v. Al Otro Lado · ¶160

In the wake of World War II, the United States negotiated international treaties with other nations to prevent future incidents like the voyage of the M. S. St. Louis. This culminated in the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, Jan. 31, 1967, 19 U. S. T. 6223, T. I. A. S. No. 6577 (1967 Protocol), to which the United States acceded in 1968. The 1967 Protocol, among other things, prohibits “refoulement,” meaning that contracting states may not “expel or return (‘refouler’) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where” she would face persecution based on her protected characteristics. Id., at 6276; see Sale v. Haitian Centers Council, Inc., 509 U. S. 155, 181–182 (1993) (explaining that the terms of this nonrefoulement obligation “imply that ‘return’ means a defensive act of resistance or exclusion at a border”).

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