The United States will open centers in Colombia and Guatemala to preselect migrants that they will be able to enter the country as soon as a regulation that allows the expulsion of many of those who cross the border with Mexico is lifted in May.
The President’s Government Joe Biden fears that the number of asylum seekers will skyrocket when on May 11 a health regulation known as Title 42 is lifted, which allows the vast majority of those who arrive at the border to be blocked or expelled without a visa or documentation required to enter.
It is a very sensitive issue for the Democratic presidentespecially now that he is a candidate for re-election in the 2024 presidential elections, in which he could fight an electoral duel with his predecessor, the Republican Donald Trump.
The latter and the Republicans in general accuse Biden of failing to manage what they call the “immigration crisis” on the border with Mexico, where more than 160,000 people tried to enter in March, according to official sources.
To remedy it, the government announced on Thursday a battery of measures with which it hopes to stop an avalanche.
According to the State Department, Washington to open “regional processing centers” throughout Latin America “to facilitate access to legal avenues” of entry.
It will start with Guatemala and Colombia, countries that the head of diplomacy, Antony Blinken, thanked “for their role as excellent partners of the United States in these efforts,” during a joint press conference with the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.
These centers will be run by international organizations because they have “physical locations” where their experts and US officials “will pre-screen the people who come,” Blinken explained.
It will be determined if the migrants “are eligible” to access refugee status, a temporary stay authorization, family reunification or a work permit in the United States.
– Allied countries –
Those interested can make an appointment by phone to access the nearest regional center.
Biden has the collaboration of allies such as Spain and Canadatwo countries that according to Washington will accept references from these centers so that migrants can access their programs.
Regional centers will also provide information on local options in Latin America. and the Caribbean, including regularization opportunities in host countries and available social services.
Mayorkas calculates that the regional centers will allow the rapid processing of “a greater number” of requests, initially about 5,000 or 6,000 more per month.
On the other hand Washington “is simplifying” the processes family reunification permit for Cubans and Haitians and will extend them to citizens of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia, reported Mayorkas.
The government will also continue with the program that allows migrants use the CBP One app to schedule a time and place to report to a port of entry. It will apply to those who are in central or northern Mexico.
And it will continue to allow quotas of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter per monthaccording to a policy agreed with Mexico that instead reinforces the expulsions of those who try to cross the border without the necessary documentation.
– Expedited removal –
But he warns that on May 12 “the border will not be open”, as people smugglers suggest through disinformation campaigns on social media.
Once Title 42 is lifted, the government will apply Title 8, as both Democrats and Republicans have been doing for decades.
Title 8 allows to expel all those who do not have an authorization to re-enter and unlike Title 42 if they attempt to re-enter they will be penalized with a re-entry ban of at least five years and possible criminal prosecution.
Those who do not resort to “legal channels” will be exposed to “expedited deportation” in a matter of days or a few weeks, warned Mayorkas, who includes Cubans and Haitians among the possible expulsions to Mexico.
Expedited removal of adults traveling alone It will be processed from the facilities of the Border Patrol and the Immigration and Customs Control Service.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services will conduct the so-called interviews of credible fear, in which it will assess whether there is a possibility that the person will be persecuted or tortured if they return to their country.
“We have expanded our retention capacity and established equipment and procedures so that people have the ability to access a lawyer,” Mayorkas said, adding that repatriation flights will increase.
In the case of families it is different. and, after weeks of rumors, the government has opted to “prioritize family unity.”
Families will be deported, even expedited, if they fail to meet the requirements to stay but alternative measures to detention will be applied, such as GPS monitoring.
The expulsions will also affect those migrants who go to sea and “they are intercepted trying to reach” the maritime borders, Mayorkas warned.
“We have seen too many people die, families, women, children in the rough sea,” he said.
For Democrats, these are stopgap measures. until Congress agrees on an immigration policy that Biden has been asking for since his arrival at the White House and that has almost no chance of prospering.
An agreement that is urgent, according to Mayorkas, because the “immigration system is outdated and very broken.”
