The Biden government’s plan will start slowly at three entry points and will target those who were forced into Trump’s controversial “Stay in Mexico” program.
Michael Nigro / Sipa USA via AP
In December, nearly 2,500 asylum seekers lived in El Barretal, an extinct nightclub about 10 miles south of the border with the United States.
Immigrants who were forced by former President Donald Trump to wait in dangerous conditions in Mexico while trying to obtain asylum, will soon begin to be allowed to enter the United States in some ports, as the Biden government tries to slow down the political controversy, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.
The unprecedented effort, which is expected to be implemented in the next two weeks, is the start of President Joe Biden’s pledge to end the Trump administration’s “Stay in Mexico” policy – formally known as Migration Protection Protocols (MPP). The policy has caused tens of thousands of asylum seekers to be forced to stay in Mexico while waiting for their day in a U.S. court. Often left with nowhere to go beyond miserable camps in Mexico’s border cities, human rights defenders have reported cases of immigrants abducted, raped and tortured.
Eric Gay / AP
An immigrant walks through a refugee camp in Matamoros, Mexico, in 2019.
The Biden government plan, which will start slowly at three doors of entry, targets those who were pushed into the Stay in Mexico program and still have active cases in the United States immigration courts, according to a draft plan obtained by BuzzFeed News . Those who qualify after online registration should not go to the border, but wait for instructions to start the entry process, said a source with knowledge of the plan.
As they prepare to enter the United States, immigrants will be held in so-called test areas in Mexico, where they will receive a medical exam and a COVID-19 test. Those who test positive for the disease will be forced to continue waiting in Mexico until the test is negative.
US Customs and Border Protection officials will also assess the ability to receive those permitted in the US on a daily basis. Authorities believe they can process up to 300 people a day for the first few weeks at two of the ports of entry for the initial phase.
“It is an effort that takes months of planning. I think it absolutely shows that the government was taking this commitment seriously, ”said the source.
The initial effort will prioritize people based on when their cases were opened, but there will be some opportunities for those who are particularly vulnerable to be followed up quickly, the source added.. The US government estimates that 25,000 people on the Stay in Mexico program are still awaiting their court hearings.
Department of Homeland Security officials will not allow people whose U.S. asylum cases have been closed or who already have deportation orders to enter. People who do not follow the reentry plan will also be rejected, in some cases using a public health law that allows US border officials to quickly repel immigrants at the border. This week, the White House also warned that most immigrants will still be rejected at the border.
The Trump administration implemented the controversial program in early 2019 amid a wave of families crossing the border and seeking asylum. In the early days of the policy, which was one in line with others seeking to restrict asylum at the border, the government recorded more than 100,000 border crossings per month.
Eric Gay / AP
Children play in an asylum seekers’ camp in the border town of Matamoros, Mexico, in 2020.
The new plan provides that asylum seekers are allowed to enter the United States without being detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), unless they have a serious criminal record or are unaccompanied children, who will be referred to Health and Human Services officials. .
Once in the United States, immigrants will be taken to local shelters and will be required to check with ICE officers as part of an “alternative to detention” where they may also be forced to wear ankle bracelets for remote monitoring, says the project plan.
In late 2019, BuzzFeed News obtained a preliminary report from a team of senior DHS officials who examined the policy of staying in Mexico and found that border officials apparently put pressure on US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials. to deny the entry of immigrants. The Red Team’s recommendations call on agencies within DHS, including Customs and Border Protection, to provide immigration court hearing notices in multiple languages, improve access to languages and ensure that immigrants understand the “questions asked and can make informed decisions ”.
They also recommended that the screening procedures for vulnerable populations, such as children and people with disabilities, be standardized and that the role of CBP officers in the process be clarified.
Defenders and experts on immigrants often criticize the lack of opportunity that immigrants enrolled in the Remains in Mexico program to actually win their lawsuits. According to data compiled by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, just over 600 of the more than 70,000 people who were pushed into the program received some form of relief. The vast majority of people in the judicial system were not represented by lawyers and received deportation orders.
The program also involved practical issues, such as a period of time during which, according to lawyers, the US authorities were trying to keep those who had received asylum out of the country by issuing false notifications of court dates.