A caravan of migrants moving from Honduras towards the border with the United States asks the new Biden government to honor what it says are “commitments” to migrants moving north, amid fears of an increase in the border when President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
More than 1,000 Honduran migrants moved to Guatemala on Friday without registering, the Associated Press reported. This is part of a larger caravan that left a Honduran city earlier in the day.
BIDEN OFFICERS EXHIBIT CARE OF ‘DAY ONE’ IMMIGRATION CHANGES, SAY SOME ‘WILL TAKE TIME’
The media reported that they expected a warmer welcome when they reached the border with the United States, and a statement issued by the migrant rights group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, on behalf of the caravan, said it expected the Biden government to take action.
“We recognize the importance of the next United States Government having demonstrated a strong commitment to migrants and asylum seekers, which represents an opportunity for the governments of Mexico and Central America to develop policies and migration management that respect and promote human rights. of the mobile population, “the statement said.” We will advocate that the Biden government honor its commitments. ”
Biden promised to reverse many of Trump’s policies on border security and immigration. He promised to end the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which keep migrants in Mexico pending their hearings. The Trump administration said the program helped end the attraction factors that bring migrants north, but critics say it is cruel and puts migrants at risk.
Biden also promised a path to citizenship for those in the country illegally and a moratorium on deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The group of migrants also pointed out promises to end the asylum cooperation agreements the government made with the countries of the North Triangle.
TRUMP SAYS ‘I KEEP MY PROMISES’ BY MARKING 450 MILES FROM THE FRONTIER WALL
“A new United States Government is an opportunity to work with the Mexican Government to develop a cooperation plan with Central America to address the causes of migration, together with civil society organizations, as well as an opportunity to increase regional cooperation in regarding people in need of protection and dismantling of illegal and inhumane programs such as Remain in Mexico, the United States Asylum Cooperation Agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as the expulsions of Title 42 by the authorities of the United States “, he said, referring to the order of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that allows the United States to quickly remove migrants for public health reasons.
Biden officials, however, are eager to send the message to migrants that this does not mean opening borders overnight.
“Processing capacity at the border is not like a light that you can just turn on and off,” Biden’s new domestic policy advisor, Susan Rice, told Spanish news agency EFE. “Migrants and asylum seekers should absolutely not believe the people in the region who sell the idea that the border will suddenly be open to prosecute everyone on the first day. It won’t be.”
“Our priority is to reopen asylum processing at the border according to the ability to do so safely and to protect public health, especially in the context of COVID-19,” she said. “This effort will start immediately, but it will take months to develop the capacity that we will need to fully reopen.”
It is unclear how far the migrants will go, and the governments of Guatemala and Mexico have indicated that they intend to return them. But the caravan comes amid fears that the Biden government’s new outlook on immigration and asylum will fuel an increase at the border.
Acting Commissioner for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Mark Morgan, said in “Fox & Friends” on Saturday that the caravan could include more than 5,000 migrants and blamed the tone of the new government.
“We are looking at two groups that are well over five thousand. And one of these groups has already crossed the border into Guatemala. And they are on their way to El Rancho, which is more or less in central Guatemala, ”he said. “It is coming. It has already started, exactly as we promised and anticipated with this rhetoric of the new government on the border.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION
President Trump warned this week that ending his policies and increasing incentives would lead to “a gigantic wave of illegal immigration, a wave like you’ve never seen before” and that there were already signs of increased flows.
“They are coming because they think it is a joy train in the end,” he said. “It’s going to be a joy train. Change the name of the caravans, which I think we created, to a joy train because that’s what they’re looking for – looking for the sauce.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.