WASHINGTON – A Mexican law has prevented the United States from quickly turning away migrant families at one of the busiest parts of the southwestern border, forcing agents to release families back into the country, according to three government officials. Biden.
The Trump administration began returning to migrants who entered the United States in March, citing the threat of the coronavirus, and the emergency rule effectively sealed the border of asylum seekers. But because of the law Mexico passed in November banning the detention of immigrant children and families, the country has stopped accepting such families from South Texas, an area usually prone to illegal transitions, officials said.
The recent move has frightened Department of Homeland Security officials and poses an immediate challenge to Biden’s government. Homeland Security officials said the emergency rule was necessary to prevent the coronavirus from spreading to detention facilities along the border, even as it prevented vulnerable families from hearing their asylum claims. An increasing number of families have been kept in such facilities in the Rio Grande Valley as well as in Del Rio, Texas, in recent weeks, officials said.
Stephanie Malin, a spokeswoman for Customs and Border Protection, said because of the pandemic precautions and social distance guidelines, some facilities have reached full “safe holding capacity”.
“CBP takes the safety and well-being of its workforce and those they encounter very seriously, and we are taking even more precautions because of Covid-19,” she said. Malin said. “As is always the case, the number of individuals crossing the border fluctuates, and we continue to adjust accordingly.” She said the agency worked with organizations in the community when they released migrants in public.
The United States has expelled more than 390,000 migrants to Mexico or their homelands since March. The rule has reduced the number of migrants detained on the U.S. side of the border, but it has also caused Central American families to scramble when they learn that their children have been delivered to Mexico, a violation of international agreements. And while the policy was a key piece in the Trump administration’s efforts to close the border to migrants, the rule also had the unintended effect of giving migrants more chance to enter illegally.
Customs and border protection recorded more than 73,000 offenses in December, an increase of more than 40,000 in July. Agents detained more than 40,000 migrants in December 2019.
Mexican law, which went into effect in January, does not apply to the entire border, officials said. U.S. border agents are still returning single adults, and also in places like Arizona, officials said. It is unclear how the law will affect other parts of the border.
A State Department spokesman in Mexico declined to comment on whether he had not accepted more migrant families, saying only that the United States was still instituting the emergency rule of the pandemic.
But the Biden government could not return migrating families to Reynosa, Mexico, a change first reported by The Washington Post. The move has raised concerns at Customs and Border Protection about the possible increase in family crossings to the neighboring Rio Grande Valley. Border crossings in recent years have been fueled primarily by Central American families fleeing persecution, violence, and poverty.
The Department of Homeland Security is currently building a tent facility in Donna, Texas, to accommodate migrants, but an administration official said it was unrelated to the law in Mexico. Customs and Border Protection said in November it would close the main detention facility in McAllen for renovation work.
President Biden has campaigned for the restoration of asylum on the southwestern border and this week signed an executive order ordering the government to review the return of President Donald J. Trump’s restriction policy.
The new administration did not publicly state when the emergency rule of the pandemic would be lifted. After a federal judge in the District of Columbia lifted a block that prevented the government from turning away unaccompanied migrant children, the White House said it would use its discretion to decide when the policy should be applied.
Mr. Biden said in December that his government would take a cautious approach to reversing Trump-era policies to prevent a boom on the border.
His immigration plan involved relying more on programs that track down migrants after they were released in the United States to ensure they showed up at the immigration court and less on detaining them.
Mexico, in turn, praised the imposition of restrictions on those he held.
“Mexico is taking a decisive step towards ending immigration detention for children, and we are encouraged by this promising development,” said Gillian Triggs, the Assistant High Commissioner to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
While top officials in the Trump administration have argued that its emergency rule was merely an attempt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Trump’s White House has sought to use the policy to advance its goals of curbing illegal immigration.
Kirk Semple reported from Mexico City.