As part of its efforts to ward off a Trump-era policy that kept tens of thousands of asylum seekers out of U.S. territory, Biden’s government on Friday allowed the first group of migrants to previously have to wait in Mexico for their immigration court. hearing.
U.S. border officials processed 25 Latin American asylum seekers in the San Ysidro port in Southern California and allowed them to remain in the country for the duration of their proceedings.
The San Diego Jewish Family Service received asylum seekers, who were forced to test negative for the coronavirus, and transported them to a hotel in the area so they could be quarantined, according to nonprofit CEO Michael Hopkins . The group included six families and five individuals from Honduras, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Cuba.
“This is the beginning of a new day for our country,” Hopkins told CBS News. “The Remain-in-Mexico program was inhuman in many ways.”
A U.S. government asylum seeker who interviewed people enrolled in the Trump-era policy praised the Biden government’s effort and said migrants admitted to the U.S. will now “fairly assess their demands.”
“Today was a day filled with hope. We finally saw 25 people being welcomed with dignity,” Taylor Levy, a lawyer who helped dozens of asylum seekers returned to Mexico, told CBS News. “It is such a wonderful sigh of relief that there will finally, at least for the 25 people, be justice and hope.”
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To prevent U.S.-bound migration, the Trump administration introduced a program in 2019 called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which eventually led to more than 70,000 non-Mexican asylum seekers being sent back to Mexico to to await their U.S. court hearings.
Many have returned to places in northern Mexico plagued by violence and crime, and have waited months and even years for their U.S. trials in U.S. military tent camps. The largest camp is in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, an area that warns the U.S. State Department that Americans should not visit.
The group Human Rights First has documented more than 1,500 reports of assault, kidnapping, rape, threats and even murder of migrants. The U.S. has returned to Mexico under the MPP policy, according to a list updated Friday.
The chances of obtaining legal aid were also slim for most migrants returning to Mexico. More than 65,000 of the asylum seekers subject to the policy do not have attorneys representing them in court, according to government data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
The Department of Homeland Security, shortly after the inauguration of President Biden, who placed asylum seekers in the MPP program, stopped exposing the practice most strongly during his presidential campaign.
The admission of 25 asylum seekers to California on Friday marked the beginning of a new process created by the Biden government with the help of nonprofits, international groups and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to gradually take in migrants with pending Remain- in-Mexico. cases so they can stay with family or friends in the US
“Today, we have taken the first step in processing suitable individuals at the border safely, efficiently and humanely,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.
It is estimated that 25,000 people may be eligible for Phase 1 of the process, but the number of asylum seekers who will be admitted at this stage is likely to be less as many migrants with pending U.S. affairs leave Mexico and return to their country.
Recently arrested migrants who were never enrolled in the program are not eligible for this process and are still facing rapid eviction in a Trump-era public health order that the Biden government has provisionally retained. In his statement on Friday, Mayorkas warned prospective migrants not to undertake the ‘dangerous journey’ north.
“Travel restrictions at the border remain in force and will be enforced,” he said.
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The US will be more eligible for asylum seekers in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas on Monday and later next week in El Paso. Once fully operational, it is expected that around 300 migrants a day will be traded at these gateways.
On Friday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) unveiled a website where qualifying migrants can register to get an appointment to enter the US DHS, and said they will prioritize the admission of asylum seekers who have waited the longest in Mexico, as well as those who are medically vulnerable or at imminent danger.
The Biden administration requires all migrants to test negative for the coronavirus at scene locations in Mexico before being admitted to the U.S. Asylum seekers who test positive will have to isolate themselves in Mexico for ten days. After the isolation period was completed and there was no fever for 24 hours, the individuals could be considered to enter the US again, the State Department said on Thursday.
DHS said asylum seekers admitted to the U.S. under the Remain-in-Mexico deduction will generally not be sent to detention centers. Instead, they will be referred to local shelters and groups such as Jewish Family Service so that they can access temporary housing before leaving for their respective destinations in the US.
Hopkins, chief executive of the Jewish Family Service in San Diego, said his group plans to continue with hotels to provide temporary accommodation to asylum seekers. Through private donations and funds from California and the federal government, Hopkins’ group offers tailor-made migrants clothing, food, other necessities such as diapers and helps arrange transportation.
“Most come with very little money and very little possessions left,” Hopkins said.