“Wait”, “don’t come”, “we’re going to announce the trial”. With these three messages, the government of Joe Biden announced Thursday the changes you plan to restore border asylum policy and turn the Migrant Protection Program (MPP), activated by the former government of Donald Trump in January 2019 under the umbrella of its zero tolerance policy.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials responsible for the new immigration policy at the border said the government will soon announces Phase 1 aimed at restoring a fair trial, which has been affected by numerous measures Trump has taken under executive orders and memoranda since his administration began in January 2017.
The White House estimates some 25,000 migrants covered by the MPP They are currently waiting in Mexican territory to appear before an immigration judge who will resolve their asylum requests at the border.
The protocol, announced in response to Mexico’s refusal to declare itself a safe third country and to prevent immigrants from other countries from reaching the US border to seek asylum, affected approximately 65,000 people since it was implemented, according to DHS data.
Once the migrant shows up at an authorized gateway at the border and applies for asylum, they will be processed. But instead of remaining on US territory, as appropriate procedure indicates, he was sent to Mexico to await his appointment before a judge in a US court.
The new system
The new border policy will focus on providing the first service to the nearly 25,000 migrants registered under the MPP who are awaiting resolution of their asylum cases in Mexican territory.
“For the time being they are being asked not to take any action. Wait for instructions, ”stressed the committee responsible for the implementation of the new protocol.
The recommendations add that those who are currently ineligible and not waiting to be appointed to an immigration judge “should wait for what to do.” And they add that “Nobody travels to the border, because the federal government will not assist anyone, only those who are waiting under the MPP ”.
Phase 1 indicates that “it will start with active cases because they are easier to treat,” but first, a working committee, with the help of the government of Mexico and international organizations, will “identify the most vulnerable and the people who are taller. waiting for their asylum requests to be resolved ”.
Plan details
The committee responsible for the plan’s implementation further explained that once the new protocol is announced, only two border gates are enabled to prosecute people under the MPP pending their day in court. The whole edge does not turn on.
The new entry restrictions capitalize on health security measures taken by the federal government in the fight to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. “We need to maintain security because of the pandemic, provide covid-19 protection and the availability of personal protective equipment, both for the staff who will assist immigrants in the process and for asylum seekers,” they said.
Biden’s plan also states that immigration authorities “will try to process people as quickly as possible, there will be no change of status at the border” and reiterated that “the border is not open” at this point.
“It will be only for migrants registered under the MPP or those who are waiting and they have an appointment date for an immigration judge, ”they noted.
They also specified that once the plan is made official, work will begin to “identify the people who need to be processed urgently, ensure the covid protocols, establish residences for those entering, coordinate their transportation. All this will be done with the help of international organizations ”.
The government expected that people who are being processed and registered with the MPP will not be detained or tried at the border once they come in, but DHS will follow strict protocol to ensure people attend their appointments before immigration. court until their asylum cases are completed.
You have to prepare
So said lawyers consulted by Univision Noticias the Biden government’s announcement “bodes well” and they encouraged the immigrants waiting in Mexico and their relatives in the United States “to prepare all the information about the new protocols and the evidence that the judges will request of them during their deportation trials in which they will seek asylum.”
“No one can say they won their asylum claim, that’s the first premise,” said Alex Gálvez, an immigration attorney who works in Los Angeles, California.
“There is no guarantee that your case will be approved. What the government is doing is giving you the right to fight for asylum in a place where they are not at risk of violence and respect their human rights, ”he added.
Under the MPP, the Trump administration forced thousands of migrants to wait in areas or cities considered the most dangerous in the world according to evaluations from international human rights organizations.
“It is also part of the fulfillment of a campaign promise that in turn protects respect for compliance with the 1997 Flores Judicial Agreement and the 2008 Human Trafficking Prevention Act (TVPRA),” he said.
Extraordinary powers
Regarding speeding up the trials, Gálvez said the government will have to work on the problem of the massive traffic jam in the immigration court, which gathered nearly 1.3 million cases and some 500 judges at the end of January.
“It will also be necessary for the Justice Department to restore the discretion of immigration judges and the government to revoke the extraordinary powers granted to immigration officers during Trump,” he said.
When asked what to do while phase 1 of the new protocol is published, Gálvez said that “to follow the instructions of the government literally.” And that once the new system is in place, “don’t miss out on your appointments, or you’ll lose your right to stay in the United States.”
According to Jaime Barrón, an immigration attorney in Dallas, Texas, “the new program will end a terrible system of making way for someone else who isn’t perfect, but it’s a good start.”
As for the queue at the immigration court, Barrón said that “it will only be ended with greater discretion and by doubling the number of judges.”
On February 2, when Biden signed an order to create a regional framework to address the crisis at the border, he warned that the problem “ will not change overnight, largely as a result of the damage done. the past four years. ”.
